Category Benchmarks for ASO: How to Read Them and Use Them

November 8, 2026

Category Benchmarks for ASO: How to Read Them and Use Them

Category Benchmarks for ASO: How to Read Them and Use Them

ASO category benchmarks with analytics on phone

A category benchmark tells you how your app’s store metrics compare with similar apps, so you can see which gap is worth fixing first. The useful ones come from the stores themselves, grouped by category, business model and download volume. Blog averages are a starting point at best. This guide covers which metrics get benchmarked, where the numbers come from, what the published ranges look like, and how to turn a gap into an ASO plan.

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TL;DR

  • Benchmark the funnel in order: impressions, product page views, conversion rate, then retention and revenue per user.
  • Use store-native peer groups first. Apple groups apps by category, business model and download tier, and Google Play uses curated peer groups.
  • Published conversion figures vary widely by category, traffic source and method, so treat any single number as a range, not a target.
  • Fix the metric in your lowest percentile first, then re-measure against the same peer group.
  • Compare like with like: same store, same country, same traffic mix, similar app maturity.

Table of Contents

What an ASO category benchmark actually measures

A benchmark is a reference point built from many apps that resemble yours. It answers one question: is my number normal for this kind of app? It does not tell you what is possible, and it does not tell you why you are above or below the line.

For ASO, the metrics sit along the path from discovery to revenue:

  • Impressions: how often your app appeared in search results, charts or featured placements. Apple’s metric definitions group impressions, product page views and conversion rate together as the App Store metrics that show how users discover your app.
  • Product page views: visits to your listing. The ratio of page views to impressions shows how well your icon, title and first screenshots earn the tap.
  • Conversion rate: the share of page viewers who download. Definitions differ between tools. One common version divides first-time downloads by product page views, so check which one a benchmark uses before comparing.
  • Retention: the share of installers still active on day 1, day 7 and day 28 or 30. It shows whether your listing attracts the right users.
  • Monetization: trial conversion, paid conversion, churn and revenue per paying user or per install.

The first three are classic ASO metrics. The last two matter because a listing that wins installs from the wrong audience looks good in the funnel and bad in the business.

Where trustworthy benchmarks come from

The strongest benchmarks are built by the platforms that hold the underlying data. Start there.

Apple Peer Group Benchmarks

Apple’s Peer Group Benchmarks in App Store Connect compare your conversion rate, day 1, day 7 and day 28 retention, crash rate and average proceeds per paying user with similar apps. Peers are grouped by App Store category, business model (free, freemium, paid, paymium or subscriptions) and download volume tier (low, medium or high). Data appears in weekly intervals and uses differential privacy, which keeps individual apps’ values private.

That grouping is the key lesson. Apple does not compare a small subscription utility with a high-volume free game, and neither should you.

Google Play Console peer groups

Google describes peer benchmark groups in Play Console as sets of similar apps, such as match-3 games, or sets you select yourself. For sensitive business metrics such as user acquisition rates, Play Console uses curated groups whose exact make-up is not published, to protect developer data. When you compare Android results, remember you are looking at a group you cannot fully inspect.

Subscription benchmarks

If you sell subscriptions, RevenueCat’s benchmarks documentation shows how this works in practice. Apps are compared within the same store and category using the last 12 months of data, across seven subscription metrics including initial conversion, trial conversion, churn and refund rate. Results appear as percentiles: the 80th to 100th range marks top performers, and the 0th to 20th range marks significant room for improvement.

What published category figures look like

Public numbers are useful for orientation, provided you note the sample, market and period. Here is how the ranges look.

Store-level context

The two stores behave differently. Business of Apps reports that in 2025 Apple’s App Store generated $117 billion in revenue against $49 billion for Google Play, while Google Play had almost three times as many downloads. A conversion or revenue benchmark from one store is not a benchmark for the other.

Conversion rate by category

Vendor studies report a very wide spread. One analysis of the US App Store put the average conversion rate at 25% across all apps in the first half of 2025, with categories ranging from around 1.2% for board games to far higher for business apps (vmobify). Another study of 200 indie apps in the US storefront from January to May 2026 found a median of 31.2%, with Food & Drink at 35.2%, Games at 33.7%, Productivity at 28.4% and Finance at 26.8% (Shotlingo).

Notice the two studies disagree on the overall level. That is normal. Different samples, different definitions of traffic and different time windows produce different averages. For mobile games, Mistplay’s conversion benchmarks show average iOS install conversion from 20.6% for racing games down to 1.2% for board games, so even inside one broad category the sub-genre matters.

Conversion rate by category

Subscription funnel by category

RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps 2026, covering more than 115,000 apps, is summarized by Pantheon Studio. It reports a day 30 download-to-trial median of 6.9% for Health & Fitness and 9.1% for Business. The day 35 download-to-paid median is 2.9% for Health & Fitness, 2.6% for Business and 2.0% across all categories. Revenue per install at day 60 is $0.66 for Health & Fitness, $0.50 for Business and $0.34 overall.

Subscription benchmark medians across three measures

Retention by category

The same summary reports 2025 global retention for two verticals. E-commerce averaged 12.6% on day 1, 6% on day 7 and 3% on day 30. Finance averaged 12%, 6% and 2%. Retention slipped year over year in both.

Quick reference

Metric Example figure Scope and period
App Store conversion, all apps 25% average US, H1 2025
App Store conversion, indie apps 31.2% median US, Jan–May 2026
Day 35 download-to-paid 2.0% median, all categories Subscription apps, 2025 data
Day 60 revenue per install $0.34 median, all categories Subscription apps, 2025 data
Finance retention 12% day 1, 2% day 30 Global, 2025

Use this table to sense-check your numbers, not to set your target.

When a category comparison misleads you

A benchmark is only as good as the match between your app and its peers. Check these six factors before you draw conclusions.

  1. Traffic source. Paid traffic reaches cold audiences, while search traffic arrives with intent. One analysis estimates paid traffic converts at 2–5% and organic search traffic at 25–40%, and warns that blending them produces a number that describes neither audience (vmobify). If your paid share rose last month, your blended conversion rate will fall without any listing change.
  2. Store. App Store and Google Play audiences, layouts and monetization differ, so compare iOS with iOS and Android with Android.
  3. Country. Costs and behavior vary by market. Q1 2026 cost-per-install ranges, for example, run from $0.60–$1.50 for Southeast Asian Android commerce apps to $5.50–$9.00 for US iOS games (Growth Opt Playbook). A global average hides that spread.
  4. Business model. Apple separates free, freemium, paid, paymium and subscription apps for a reason. A paid app and an ad-supported app will not convert alike.
  5. Volume tier and maturity. A new app with few ratings and a mature app with years of reviews face different conversion conditions.
  6. Seasonality. Holidays, tax season and New Year fitness spikes shift both traffic and intent. Compare the same weeks year over year when you can.

How to read a gap between you and your category

A gap is a prompt to investigate, not a verdict. Work through it in this order.

Step 1: locate the gap in the funnel

Compare each stage separately. A low impression-to-page-view rate points to your icon, title, subtitle or rankings. A low page-view-to-install rate points to screenshots, ratings, price, preview video or the promise in your first lines. Healthy conversion with weak retention points to a mismatch between listing and product.

Step 2: check the peer group

Confirm your peer group fits. If Apple places you among high-volume freemium apps and you are a niche subscription tool, the line matters less than your own trend.

Step 3: look at the percentile, not the average

Percentiles tell you how far you are from typical. RevenueCat’s guidance is to treat metrics in the lowest percentile band as the strongest growth levers and to set goals based on what similar apps achieve. A move from the 15th to the 40th percentile is a more realistic goal than jumping to the top band.

Step 4: isolate one change at a time

Change the screenshots, or the subtitle, not both. Then you can attribute movement. Seasonal creative refreshes can help conversion, with one source estimating an 8–15% uplift during the relevant window (vmobify), but treat that as an upper-end expectation and measure your own result.

Turning benchmarks into an ASO priority list

A simple scoring approach keeps the work focused:

  1. List your key metrics and your percentile or position against peers for each.
  2. Mark every metric in the bottom fifth as a candidate.
  3. Estimate the effort for each fix: a metadata edit takes an hour, a new screenshot set takes days.
  4. Start with the high-gap, low-effort items, usually title, subtitle, keyword field and description.
  5. Re-measure after two to four weeks against the same peer group and market.

Tracking this over time matters more than any single snapshot. If you want a framework for tying goals to a measurement routine, this overview of monitoring performance for organic growth covers the same logic of setting baselines and reviewing them on a schedule.

Benchmark gaps also look different when you see rivals’ listings. Pair category numbers with a direct look at the apps that rank for your target keywords: their titles, subtitles, screenshot order and update cadence. That tells you why a gap exists, which no percentile can.

Perspective: why benchmarks belong next to your own data

We see the same pattern in many app teams: someone finds a category conversion rate in a blog post, compares it with last week’s number, and either panics or relaxes. Both reactions are usually wrong.

A benchmark is a map reference, not a destination. What compounds over time is your own trend line, measured consistently against the same peers, with listing changes logged next to it. That is why we built Apptenium to keep ASO scanning, keyword tracking, competitor intelligence and performance reporting in one place. When downloads, revenue and listing changes sit side by side, a gap stops being a mystery and becomes a task.

Our approach is built around copy-ready fixes from every scan, so the step from “we are behind” to “here is the title and subtitle to test” is short. Start with the funnel stage where you trail your peers, make one change, and let the data tell you whether it worked.

Mike

Put your benchmarks to work with Apptenium

Once you know which stage of your funnel trails your category, you need a way to act and to track. Apptenium combines ASO scanning with AI-powered listing recommendations, keyword tracking, competitor intelligence and app performance reporting, and it connects data from Firebase and Google Analytics. You can see how your listing, rankings and results move together instead of stitching together separate tools.

Apptenium

The Free plan gives you a limited number of scans per month, which is enough to audit your current listing. The Pro plan is $9.99 per month for unlimited scans and premium features. See Apptenium pricing to pick a plan, or try the free ASO tools first. To study the apps you are measured against, explore competitor intelligence and the wider ASO tools.

FAQ

Which ASO metrics are most commonly benchmarked by category?

Impressions, product page views and conversion rate are the core store metrics. Teams also benchmark retention at day 1, 7 and 28 or 30, and monetization measures such as trial conversion, churn and revenue per paying user. Apple’s Peer Group Benchmarks cover conversion, retention, crash rate and proceeds per paying user.

How do I pick the right peer group?

Match your store, category, business model and download volume. Apple groups apps along those lines, so use its grouping where it fits. Add your country and your traffic mix, because paid and organic traffic convert very differently.

Is a 25% conversion rate good?

It depends on category, store and traffic source. One US App Store analysis put the all-app average at 25% for H1 2025, but category ranges ran from about 1% to well above 30%. Compare against your own category and peer group, then track your trend.

How often should I review my category benchmarks?

Store dashboards update weekly, so a monthly review is a sensible rhythm for most teams. Review after any listing change, a major release or a shift in paid spend, and compare against the same weeks last year to account for seasonality.

Sources

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