Are Widgets Making a Comeback? Widgetable is!

Ariel Ariel
7/21/23

This is a single insight from This Week in Apps - Out of Gas. Check out the full article for more insights.


Remember when widgets were new and mega hot? When Widgetsmith earned $3M per month?? Well, that was back in 2020. Downloads and revenue of widgets declined over time and mostly went unnoticed.

This week I noticed an "oldie" rising to the top of the US App Store.

And it wasn't Widgetsmith.

Widgetable is now the #5 most downloaded app in the US App Store, having risen consistently over the last month, which started in position #82.

According to our App Intelligence, downloads grew from a daily average of 35K in June to a peak of 152K two weeks ago. Downloads dropped a bit and then rose, again, to 149K this Tuesday.

Since the growth sprout started, which seems to be around July 5th, Widgetable saw 356K downloads. That's a little more than half of all downloads Widgetable got in all of 2023 before the sprout started.

The interesting thing here is that this growth isn't a result of a new Apple Search Ads campaign and isn't limited to the App Store, which is what we normally see. Although the App Store is responsible for 77% of the downloads, the trends across both the App Store and Google Play look fairly similar in terms of growth.

But here's the big question - what about revenue?

It tripled!

In June, Widgetable was earning about $7k/day, according to our estimates. And that's net, which means the amount after Apple and Google deduct their fees. As downloads rose, so did revenue. The trend was a lot more tame, but the results are substantial. This week, Widgetable's daily net revenue peaked at $22K.

Here the distribution between the App Store and Google Play is very different. Most of this net revenue - $21K of it, came from the App Store. Google Play was responsible for just a few hundred dollars.

App developers that aren't focused on growing - what are you waiting for???

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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: #widgets

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