Short answer: the median iOS app gets on the order of 7,800 downloads per month — and that median hides a brutal spread. Across the 1,079,022 apps we track, 64.6% get fewer than 1,000 downloads a month, while only 23.4% clear 10k/month and 0.6% clear 100k/month. Viral launch stories are the exception that survives retelling; the App Store's normal condition is quiet. The good news: downloads are only half the equation — what each download is worth varies 20× by category, so small-download apps in the right niche routinely out-earn big-download apps in the wrong one.
The download distribution, measured
Public download numbers come almost entirely from press releases and launch-week screenshots — a survivor sample. Below is the whole store, from our continuously-updated estimates:
Two things jump out. First, the base is enormous: most apps are effectively invisible, receiving a trickle of installs from brand searches and direct links. Second, each tier up is roughly an order of magnitude harder — the jump from 1k to 10k monthly downloads eliminates more apps than the jump from zero to 1k. Distribution physics, not effort, is the default explanation when an app stalls: the store does not hand out discovery for shipping.
Typical downloads by category
Median monthly downloads among tracked apps differ sharply by category — Lifestyle leads on volume, but as the revenue column shows, volume and value are different rankings entirely:
| Category | Median revenue / mo | Median downloads / mo | Revenue per download |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entertainment | $17k | 9.3k | $1.83 |
| Lifestyle | $10k | 13k | $0.77 |
| Photo & Video | $8k | 13k | $0.61 |
| Productivity | $8k | 9.0k | $0.84 |
| Health & Fitness | $7k | 5.0k | $1.42 |
| Education | $7k | 8.0k | $0.89 |
| Games | $7k | 11k | $0.60 |
| Utilities | $6k | 10k | $0.63 |
| Finance | $6k | 900 | $6.89 |
| Music | $5k | 5.8k | $0.93 |
Downloads are a vanity metric — until you multiply them
A million downloads of a utility that monetizes at pennies per install is a smaller business than thirty thousand downloads of a subscription app that converts. This is the single most common mistake in app market analysis: ranking opportunities by install counts. The correct mental model is downloads × revenue-per-download × retention — and the middle term moves more than 20× between categories. It is also why "top free" charts and "top grossing" charts barely overlap: they are sorted by different businesses.
Where downloads actually come from
Across the apps we track daily, sustained download volume comes from a short list of sources, in roughly this order of reliability: (1) App Store search — the workhorse; apps with a portfolio of ranked keywords collect installs every day without spending; (2) chart and category placement — powerful but reflexive (charts amplify momentum, they rarely create it); (3) paid acquisition — dominant in categories where unit economics support it, invisible elsewhere; (4) outside-the-store demand — TikTok/YouTube virality, press, web funnels; the spikes are dramatic but decay within days unless search picks up the demand. Launch spikes are real but small: the durable curve is set by search visibility and retention, which is why download velocity after week two predicts an app's trajectory far better than launch week does.
How to read a competitor's download number
Three checks turn a raw download figure into information. Trend beats level: 20k/month growing 15% monthly is a better business than 80k/month flat — the curve tells you whether the product is compounding. Geography changes value: installs concentrated in high-income storefronts are worth multiples of the same count from emerging markets, so a "bigger" competitor may be commercially smaller. Cross-check against revenue: divide estimated revenue by downloads and compare to the category benchmark — a figure far above it means a paywall worth studying; far below means monetization is broken or the installs were bought cheap. All three checks take minutes with per-app estimates.
How we measure this
Appdex estimates monthly downloads for over a million iOS apps from store signals, cross-platform data and market benchmark panels, calibrated continuously against verified figures — each estimate ships with a published confidence level. Per-app numbers are available inside the product.
- 1,079,022 iOS apps are tracked with download estimates on Appdex.
- 64.6% of iOS apps get fewer than 1,000 downloads per month.
- Only 23.4% of iOS apps exceed 10,000 downloads per month.
- 0.6% of iOS apps exceed 100,000 downloads per month.
- 0.05% of iOS apps exceed 1M downloads per month.
- The median iOS app with measurable downloads gets roughly 7,800 downloads per month.
- Lifestyle has the highest median download volume among categories we benchmark (~13,000/month per app).
Frequently asked
How many downloads does the average app get?
The median iOS app gets roughly 7,800 downloads per month — and 64.6% of apps stay under 1,000/month. Averages are misleading here because a tiny group of mega-apps pulls them up by orders of magnitude.
What is a good number of downloads for an app?
Context decides. 10k+/month puts an app in roughly the top tier of the store and, in a subscription category, can support a real business. In low revenue-per-download categories, even 100k/month may earn little — value per download matters as much as volume.
How many downloads does an app need to make money?
In high revenue-per-download categories (subscription health, photo/AI, education), apps monetize meaningfully from a few thousand monthly downloads. In low-value categories, the same revenue can require 50–100× the installs. Category economics decide the required scale.
How many downloads do apps get on launch day?
Without press or an existing audience, typically a handful to a few hundred. Launch spikes from features or virality decay within days — sustained volume comes from search visibility and retention, not launch mechanics.
Do download counts include updates or re-installs?
Our figures estimate new installs (first-time downloads), not updates. Public 'downloads' claims often mix cumulative lifetime installs with monthly rates — always check which is being quoted.