Millions of Downloads Later, Widgets Aren't As Hot This Time Around
This is a single insight from This Week in Apps #132 - This Race Isn't Over Yet. Check out the full article for more insights.
Last week I looked at the first day of iOS 16 and its impact on downloads. Now, a week in, I have more data to share to give you an insight into the second wave of demand for widgets and answer the question of whether you should make a widget app too.
(spoiler, you probably shouldn't)
I collected all widgets apps that are currently ranked in the top 100 in the US App Store. There weren't as many as I initially expected and as I remembered from 2020, just four! The first sign this widget wave isn't as big as 2020, and a reason why you shouldn't jump in right now.
Combined downloads for the four apps, which include Widgetable, TopWidgets, Themify, and Widgetsmith just crossed 13,000,000 since iOS 16 launched. That's more than a million new downloads every day. Yes.
But...
That's not as many downloads as I'd expect when comparing to the numbers of 2020. The app seeing this lack of excitement the most is Widgetsmith, which owned 2020. This time around, downloads were a fraction of what it saw when iOS 14 launched.
But there's more!
Widgetable, the app that's currently in the lead, both in terms of downloads and rank, is spending lots of money on search ads. According to our ASA Intelligence (coming soon) the app is bidding on hundreds of keywords, some not even that relevant.
So, if you have time and money to burn you might want to make a widget app. Otherwise, there are better opportunities out there for you.
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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.
