# Watch the App Store move

Source: https://asostudio.app/blog/app-store-market-trends

Why the direction of an App Store category matters as much as its size, and the six signals worth watching every day. ASO Studio's Market Trends, which reads every category once a day, is being built now.

## Six signals worth watching

### 1. Size is the past, direction is the future
A big category got big years ago. What decides how an app launched next month does is whether that category's audience is still growing when it arrives.
**What to check:** Each category's audience over 7, 30 and 90 days.

### 2. A growing crowd has no favourite yet
When a category's installed base grows, new people arrive without an app they are loyal to. That is the cheapest moment there is to win a download.
**What to check:** The categories on the rise and falling back, ranked by real moves.

### 3. New entries prove the door is open
Apps breaking into a category's top 100 grossing show that newcomers can still get in. A chart where the same names hold every place for months is a wall.
**What to check:** Every app that entered, left, climbed or slipped inside a category.

### 4. Easy searches do not stay easy
A term with room in it this quarter can fill with rivals by the next. Watching difficulty move tells you when to claim a search before the field closes.
**What to check:** Demand and difficulty, day by day, for every category.

### 5. Money follows the audience
A growing audience only matters if it turns into paying users. Downloads, revenue and subscription share side by side show whether a category is getting richer or just busier.
**What to check:** Downloads a day, revenue a month and subscription share, on one chart.

### 6. One reading is noise, a line is a signal
A single day can jump for a dozen reasons. Readings kept every day from the first one turn a blip into a trend you can act on.
**What to check:** A full history for every category, one reading a day.

## Frequently asked questions

### What are App Store market trends?
App Store market trends are how each category changes over time: whether its audience is growing, whether its searches are getting harder to rank for, how its downloads and revenue move, and which apps are breaking into its top charts. A snapshot shows how big a category is today. A trend shows where it is heading, which is what matters for an app you have not shipped yet.

### How do I know if an App Store category is growing?
Watch its audience: the combined lifetime ratings of the top apps in that category, read every day. Lifetime ratings pile up as people use those apps, so the speed they climb at tracks how fast the category's installed base grows. Compare that speed across categories over 30 or 90 days and the growing ones separate from the flat ones. ASO Studio's Market Trends is built to chart exactly this for every category.

### Is it better to build in a growing category or a big one?
A growing one, if you have to pick. A big, flat category is held by apps with years of ratings, and new users there are rare. A growing category keeps bringing in people who have no favourite app yet, and the leaders have not locked them in. The best case is both: a large category whose audience is still climbing.

### When is Market Trends available in ASO Studio?
We are building Market Trends out now in ASO Studio for Mac. Categories, keyword research, Idea Lab and competitor tracking are in the app today, and Categories already compares every App Store category on demand, difficulty, downloads and revenue.