New Year, New Widget, Same Growth Strategy

Ariel Ariel
1/14/22

This is a single insight from This Week in Apps #96 - New Year, New Battles.. Check out the full article for more insights.


A new app rose to the top of the US downloads chart this week. The app's name is Locket Widget, and it gives users the ability to put a picture of their friends as a widget on their home screen.

New year, new widget app.

Since the beginning of the year, when the app became viral, Locket Widget was downloaded 1.5M times from the App Store, according to our estimates. 31% of those downloads came from the US, 11% from the UK, and the rest were scattered over many many countries.

So, how did an unknown app without no ad budget take command of the App Store?

TikTok!

The developer of the app credits TikTokers sharing videos of the widget to going viral, and I believe that. It's not the first time that's happened, and I guarantee you it won't be the last.

TikTok's momentum makes it into an ideal way for apps and games to get big, and if you've got an app or game that needs to grow, you should take the time needed to figure out how to leverage that momentum.

If you're in the "I don't get TikTok" camp, now's a great reminder that you should leave that camp immediately if you want more downloads.

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All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.

Tagged: #viral

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