Top Gaining Apps in the USA: Angry Birds Star Wars, Hill Climb Racing and more
Apps to watch in the USA: Which top apps gained the most ranks in the USA last week?
In this new weekly series, we use App Annie Store Stats to to answer this question:
Which commercially-successful apps are driving the biggest gains in downloads and revenues?
Our aim is to inform App Annie blog readers with data that allows them to be the first to spot trends that are happening in app stores worldwide.
With this knowledge of app store rankings, you can keep track of competitors, flag potential investment opportunities and keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the app world.
In this post, we’re looking at the top gaining apps in the USA. Also check out our other posts for China and Japan.
How We Calculate the Top Gaining Apps
These reports will higlight apps that have both jumped the most ranks and are commercially relevant (i.e. near the top of the charts rather than the bottom). We’ve applied two simple parameters to give you the Top Gaining Apps.
1. Calculated by number of ranks risen within the 7-day period of the last week. This being the difference between the app’s peak rank and its lowest rank in that period, for apps that have risen and not fallen in rank over time.
2. Filtered to the Top 20 apps only. It gets progressively harder to rise up the ranks in the upper echelons of the app store charts, and analysts are mainly interested in those apps that have risen to commercial relevance. So we’ve filtered it to only those apps whose peak rank is within the Top 20.
We’ve applied this view to iPhone and Google Play, Free and Grossing Ranks — giving us four charts to investigate.
1. iPhone Free: Top Gainers
Hill Climb Racing storms the iPhone Free charts in its first week of release
A handful of apps with significant rank gains landed in the Top 20, creating significant turnover in the top iPhone Free charts.
 |
iPhone Free | Peak Rank | Ranks Gained |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hill Climb Racing | 3 | 1000+ |
| 2 | Guess! | 7 | 1000+ |
| 3 | MyCalendar Free | 19 | 1000+ |
| 4 | Icy Tower 2 | 20 | 1000+ |
| 5 | Are You Quick Enough? 2 Pro – The Ultimate Reaction Test | 7 | 400+ |
| 6 | Storm the Train | 18 | 300+ |
| 7 | Gangnam Style Massacre | 3 | 200+ |
| 8 | Monster Galaxy: Exile | 19 | 200+ |
| 9 | Facebook Camera | 3 | 100+ |
| 10 | Aerox | 3 | 100+ |
| Data from App Annie Store Stats. November 9-15, 2012.Apps in the Top 20 iPhone Free charts that had the biggest rank gains. | |||
2. Google Play Free: Top Gainers
Star Wars flies into first place
Angry Birds Star Wars enjoys a strong launch week as it vaults into first place on the Google Play Free charts as the top rank gainer.
|
Google Play Free | Peak Rank | Ranks Gained |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Angry Birds Star Wars | 1 | 1000+ |
| 2 | Subway Surfers | 16 | 20+ |
| 3 | Flow Free | 17 | 4 |
| 4 | The Weather Channel | 19 | 1 |
| 5 | Temple Run | 12 | 1 |
| 6 | Adobe Reader | 16 | 1 |
| 7 | Tango Text, Voice, Video Calls | 13 | 1 |
| 8 | GO SMS Pro | 17 | 1 |
| 9 | Angry Birds | 12 | 0 |
| 10 | 1 | 0 | |
| Data from App Annie Store Stats. November 9-15, 2012. Apps in the Top 20 Google Play Free charts that had the biggest rank gains. |
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3. iPhone Grossing: Top Gainers
Tagged Mobile App gains over 200 ranks to place in the Top 20
The top gaining apps in the iPhone Grossing charts all come from within the Top 100, showing relative stability compared to the iPhone Free charts.
|
iPhone Grossing | Peak Rank | Ranks Gained |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tagged Mobile App | 15 | 200+ |
| 2 | Dark Summoner | 19 | 40+ |
| 3 | Big Fish Casino – Free Slots, Poker, Blackjack and More! | 5 | 14 |
| 4 | DragonVale | 8 | 13 |
| 5 | MARVEL War of Heroes | 15 | 12 |
| 6 | Minecraft – Pocket Edition | 8 | 9 |
| 7 | Comics | 19 | 9 |
| 8 | Rage of Bahamut | 2 | 7 |
| 9 | Bike Race Free by Top Free Games | 16 | 4 |
| 10 | Hay Day | 10 | 3 |
| Data from App Annie Store Stats. November 9-15, 2012. Apps in the Top 20 iPhone Grossing charts that had the biggest rank gains. |
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4. Google Play Grossing: Top Gainers
Angry Birds Star Wars HD further cements Rovio’s presence in the Google Play charts
An impressive launch week for Rovio as two versions of Angry Birds Star Wars place within the Top 20 apps of the Google Play Grossing charts.
|
Google Play Grossing | Peak Rank | Ranks Gained |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Angry Birds Star Wars HD | 9 | 1000+ |
| 2 | Angry Birds Star Wars | 13 | 1000+ |
| 3 | Drag Racing | 15 | 14 |
| 4 | Minecraft – Pocket Edition | 17 | 7 |
| 5 | NBA Game Time 2012-13 | 12 | 7 |
| 6 | MARVEL War of Heroes | 8 | 4 |
| 7 | Blood Brothers (RPG) | 1 | 2 |
| 8 | Need for Speed™ Most Wanted | 8 | 2 |
| 9 | Legend of the Cryptids | 19 | 2 |
| 10 | Crime City | 9 | 2 |
| Data from App Annie Store Stats. November 9-15, 2012. Apps in the Top 20 Google Play Grossing charts that had the biggest rank gains. |
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