With the new year approaching and 2017 coming to an end, we wanted to have a look back at this amazing year and decided to share some insights we’ve collected throughout the entire year. So, we decided to start off things with the app store keyword search volume report of 2017.
We grouped keywords into three different groups; App names, Game names and discovery centric keywords.
After that, we had a look at the most searched keywords and the most volatile keywords. We analyzed these for each specific keyword group such as most searched app names or the most volatile discovery centric keywords.
We found some quite interesting insights and we are eager to share them with you.
First of all, let’s have a look at the most searched app names, game names and discovery centric keywords and see what kind of interesting data we have pulled out for you.
The App Store Keyword Search Volume Report of the Most Popular App Names
In this chart we had a look at the top 15 most searched app names and how has their popularity changed over time. Most of the brand names here won’t be a huge surprise but knowing what people search for the most is something not to be overlooked at.
The top 15 most searched app names are as follows: snapchat, instagram, facebook, youtube, tinder, messenger, twitter, netflix, whatsapp, uber, pandora, musical.ly, tumblr, amazon.
As it can be seen on the chart nearly all of the most searched app names belong to the Social Networking category. This shows that people are still mostly using their mobile phones for primarily social matters.
The App Store Keyword Search Volume Report for the Most Popular Games
In this graph, we had a look at the top 10 game names that were searched the most during 2017.
The top 15 most searched game names are: minecraft, roblox, clash royale, pokemon go, clash of clans, candy crush, solitaire, game pigeon, subway surfers, words with friends, angry birds, pixel gun 3d, geometry dash, sims and trivia crack.
The games are a bit more complicated than apps as there were a couple of noticeable releases during the year. As some games went viral, naturally, people started to search more for these keywords and increased their search score exponentially. Snake vs. block and rules of survival are clear examples of these keywords.
When these games became viral, you can see a sudden increase in their search score over a very short period of time.
The App Store Search Volume Report for the Most Popular Discovery Keywords
Other than the app names and game names we also had a look at discovery centric keywords. Discovery centric keywords are keywords that are searched to find an app that fills a specific niche.
The most searched discovery centric keywords are: games, free games, vpn, photo editor, calculator, car games, weather, fun games, bible, period tracker, vpn, qr code reader, basketball games, racing games, shooting games.
Looking at the most popular discovery centric keywords is perhaps the most helpful insight we can get from here. These keywords will reveal the trends in app niches.
There are also keywords that surge in popularity at specific times. The most notable one and the only seasonal keyword that made it into our list is the keyword ‘black friday 2017’. You can see how the search popularity surged at the end of October.
The App Store Keyword Search Volume Report for Most Volatile App Names
We also had a look at the most inconsistent keywords for apps, games, and discovery centric keywords and prepared charts for them as well.
Quite interestingly the most volatile keywords were again not seasonal ones but were more generic apps. However, the dominators of the most searched keywords for apps, the social networking apps, were nowhere to be found.
The most volatile app names are: nike, animoji, ufc, life is beatiful, let-go, paypal, t-mobile, t-mobile tuesdays and monster high.
The App Store Keyword Search Volume Report for Most Volatile Game Names
Well, the most inconsistent games were truly much more inconsistent than apps. This reveals us when compared to apps, the games category is much more vivid and chaotic. This might be a result of the fact that games have a shelf life, at least most of them, and when they are out of content they get replaced.
The most volatile game names are: slots, game pigeon, 777 casino, blackjack, 2048, solitaire classic, tbh, minecraft: story mode, impossible bottle flip, dancing hotdog.
The App Store Keyword Search Volume Report for Most Volatile Discovery Keywords
The most chaotic of the all three keyword groups seems to be the discovery centric keywords section. As these keywords in their nature are targeted at finding something specific, seasonal keywords seem to have popped out more often here. We can even see some keywords related to political events as well.
The most volatile discovery centric keywords are: march madness, spider solitaire, trending, crossword, dictionary, puzzle games, casino slots game, slots machine game, hurricane tracker, mobile casino.
In this chart, we have separated the seasonal keywords from the rest. Now it’s much clearer how seasonal events influence app store searches.For example, when we have a look at the search volume trends on the graph we can see that the keyword ramadan 2017 suddenly skyrocketed and immediately plummeted after 2 months. A similar story can be told for solar eclipse timer and chicago marathon.
The most interesting finding in this chart is that how the keywords boycott trump got suddenly quite popular and had some small surges throughout the year. This is a great example of how political events might affect app store searches.
One final finding from this chart, which is quite interesting as well, is the fact that the keyword christmas countdown had its popularity go up when christmas was close. However, throughout the entire year, it still had a decent search score. This means that even during the summer people were searching for christmas countdown. We believe this is something worth noting.
In conclusion, the year 2017 was an awesome year for us. Our tool took huge steps and we have much more coming in 2018!
