Change App Category: Impact on Rankings and Installs
Change App Category: Impact on Rankings and Installs
Changing your app’s category moves you into a different set of browse pages, a different chart and a different group of competitors, so it can lift or hurt installs depending on how well the new category fits your app. The research points one way: a fitting move into a less crowded, more specific category tends to help discovery, while a move made only to chase a chart position tends to backfire. Treat it as a measured experiment, not a quick fix.
TL;DR
- On the App Store, your primary category decides where the app shows up when people browse or filter, and whether it sits on the Apps tab or the Games tab.
- Academic studies of category redesigns found more downloads for apps placed in smaller, more specific categories, but one study also found lower revenue per user.
- Apple expects the category to reflect your app’s core experience, and an inappropriate choice is against its review rules.
- Change a category only when the app itself has changed or the current category hides you from the right audience, then compare rankings and installs before and after.
- Track keyword rank, category rank and conversion together for several weeks so you can tell the category effect from everything else.
Table of Contents
- What a category actually controls
- What the research says about category moves
- When changing your category makes sense
- The risks of choosing a poor fit
- How to change your category, step by step
- How to read the results
- Perspective: why we treat a category as a testable lever
- Measure the move with Apptenium
- FAQ
- Sources
What a category actually controls
A category is a shelf. It does not index your keywords, but it decides which shelf shoppers see you on and which apps you are stacked against.
Apple’s own guidance says the primary category determines where your app appears when people browse or filter search results, and whether it lands on the Apps tab or the Games tab on iPhone and iPad. That means a category change alters your browse exposure directly, even if your title, subtitle and keyword field stay identical.
On Google Play, categories and tags help users search for and discover the most relevant apps. An app can carry a maximum of five tags, and changes may take up to 24 hours to show on the app’s page. Tags matter as much as the category itself, which is why we cover them separately in our guide to Google Play tags that control discoverability.
Three things shift when you move:
- Browse surfaces. Shoppers who browse your old category stop meeting you there, and shoppers in the new category begin to.
- Chart competition. Your category rank is a ratio against the apps beside you. A new category means a new field, so your position can jump or fall with no change in your actual installs.
- Peer group. On Google Play, tags and categories affect the peer group your performance is compared to in the console, which changes how you read your own benchmarks.
Search is the part that stays mostly steady. Your keywords still come from your title, subtitle, keyword field and description. If you want to understand that layer first, read how keyword indexation works on iOS, because a category change will not repair a weak metadata set.
What the research says about category moves
Most advice on this topic is anecdotal. Several academic studies give firmer ground, and they are worth reading closely because they use real store redesigns as natural experiments.
Smaller, more specific categories help discovery
Economist Maxim Ershov studied what happened when Google Play reorganized its game categories from 6 to 18 in early 2014. Game entry rose by 33% relative to non-games, and most of the effect came from niche app types that had been hard to find before the split.
The published version of the work adds the demand side. After the redesign, downloads rose for games relative to non-games in the short run, and they rose the most for games in less populous categories. The author reads this as evidence that fewer choices in a category helped consumers find what they wanted.
The practical lesson for you: the same app can be easier to find on a shelf with 300 competitors than on a shelf with 30,000. Crowding is a cost you pay every day.
Congestion is a measurable force
The same research estimated that US Google Play consumers gained nearly $70 million per year from the added variety, but congestion nearly cut those gains in half. In plain terms, more apps in one place makes each app harder to see. Apps in categories with fewer neighbors are more likely to be visible.
Moving early, and moving to a better fit, pays
A 2024 paper by Song and Lee presented at ICIS looked at a leading app store that split an existing category in November 2015. Apps that migrated into the new category improved their sales compared with apps that stayed, and the first and second movers gained significantly, while later followers saw no substantial change.
Timing matters, then. The advantage went to apps that recognized a better home early. An app that follows a crowd into a category after it has filled up should expect much less.
Installs and revenue do not always move together
A Wharton study by Zhang and colleagues examined what happened after Apple removed shopping apps from the lifestyle category in November 2015. Lifestyle apps on iOS received about 9% more downloads than lifestyle apps on Google Play, and revenue per user fell by 4%. The authors describe the pattern as local homogenization: a category with more similar apps raised installs but reduced revenue per installed customer.
That result is a useful reminder to judge a category move on more than one number. If you only watch installs, you can miss a shift in who is installing. Pair downloads with revenue, subscription starts or ad revenue per user so you see the full effect.
When changing your category makes sense
Apple says the category should accurately reflect the app’s core experience, and it lists choosing an inappropriate category as a violation of the App Review Guidelines. That sets the boundary: a move is justified when the new category describes your app better, not when it merely looks less competitive.
Good reasons to move:
- The product changed. You added a core feature set, such as a budgeting app that became a full investing app, and the old shelf no longer describes it.
- Your audience looks elsewhere. Apple advises you to consider the app’s purpose, where users naturally look for an app like yours, and which categories contain the same type of apps. If your closest peers all sit in a different category, your current one may be hiding you.
- A store reorganized its categories. The studies above show that redesigns create openings, and early movers captured the most.
- Your current category is extremely crowded and a closer-fitting, smaller one exists that your app honestly belongs in.
Bad reasons to move:
- Chasing an easier top-10 chart slot in a category that does not describe your app.
- Reacting to one bad week of installs.
- Copying a competitor’s category without checking why they chose it.
Google’s own guidance is conservative too. Google Play Console Help recommends changing tags only after significant changes to your app’s content or functionality, and then re-checking that your five most relevant tags are selected. Apply the same discipline to categories.
The risks of choosing a poor fit
A mismatched category creates two kinds of risk.
Policy risk. An irrelevant category can lead to rejection or removal. On the App Store it is a review issue, and if a change delays a submission you lose release time. A related trap sits in your metadata: category-adjacent keywords can run into Apple’s rules, so review our guides on forbidden App Store keywords and banned keywords on iOS before you rewrite anything alongside a category move.
Audience risk. Even a category that passes review can send the wrong shoppers to your page. They see an app that is not what they were looking for, skip it, and your conversion rate falls. A lower conversion rate can then weigh on your visibility, so a poor fit hurts twice.
Conversion also depends on what the page itself says to a shopper. The principles in this overview of CTA importance for conversions apply to your icon, screenshots and first lines of copy as much as to a landing page: a visitor should know within seconds why this app is for them.
How to change your category, step by step
The mechanics are simple. The judgment around them is where moves succeed or fail.
Step 1: Record a baseline before you touch anything
Capture at least two to four weeks of data: category rank, ranks for your top 20 to 50 keywords, impressions, product page views, conversion rate, installs and revenue per user. Without this you cannot separate the category effect from seasonality, an update or an ad burst.
This is where unified tracking pays off. Apptenium brings keyword tracking, competitor intelligence and app performance reporting such as downloads and revenue into one platform, and it integrates with Firebase and Google Analytics, so the before-and-after comparison sits in one view instead of five spreadsheets. For which numbers to log, see our guide to ASO reporting metrics.
Step 2: Map the candidate categories
List two or three categories that honestly fit. For each, note how many direct competitors sit in it, who holds the top spots, and whether your closest peers are there. Our competitor intelligence view is built for this kind of comparison, and the competitor tracking checklist gives you a weekly routine to keep it current.
Ask one question of each candidate: if a shopper browsed here looking for an app like mine, would I be a reasonable result? If the answer is no, drop it. That also keeps you on the right side of the review rules.
Step 3: Make the change in the right place
On the App Store, the category is part of your app information in App Store Connect. Apple notes that app information properties can be edited according to the app’s status, so some fields lock while a version is under review. Plan the change for a moment when you can submit a new version rather than trying to alter a build already in review.
On Google Play, change the category and review your tags in the Play Console, then allow up to 24 hours for the page to reflect it.
Step 4: Refresh metadata at the same time
A new category often implies a new audience and new search vocabulary. Revisit your app title, your keyword choices and your description so the page speaks to the shoppers now seeing it. Be careful about changing everything at once, though: the more variables you move, the harder the result is to read. If you plan a bigger rename, our guide to the impact of renaming an app explains what shifts in rankings and installs.
Step 5: Watch for four to eight weeks
Rankings can fluctuate in the first days after a change, so judge the trend, not the first reading. Compare against your baseline on category rank, keyword rank, impressions, conversion and revenue per user. Our category ranking strategy guide explains how to read chart position without over-reacting to it, and keyword tracking cadence helps you decide how often to check.
Step 6: Keep or roll back
If installs and revenue per user improve or hold, keep the move. If conversion drops and the new audience clearly is not yours, return to the previous category and note what you learned. A rollback after a short test is cheap compared with staying in a shelf that does not fit.
How to read the results
Use this table to interpret what you see.
| What you see | Likely meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Category rank up, installs flat | You are in a smaller field, but traffic did not grow | Check browse impressions and conversion before celebrating |
| Installs up, revenue per user down | A broader audience arrived, with lower value per install | Review onboarding, pricing and who the new users are |
| Impressions up, conversion down | The page attracts shoppers it does not satisfy | Revise screenshots, first lines of copy and keywords |
| Keyword ranks unchanged, browse traffic shifted | The category worked on browse, not search, as expected | Keep the metadata plan separate and keep testing |
| Everything dips for two weeks, then recovers | Normal settling after a change | Hold steady and keep measuring |
The second row mirrors the Wharton finding: more installs do not guarantee more value per install. Measuring both is the only way to know.
Perspective: why we treat a category as a testable lever
Most teams treat a category change as a yes-or-no decision made on a hunch. We think it works better as a small experiment with a clear baseline, because the effect on a given app depends on its metadata, its audience and the neighbors it ends up beside.
The research agrees with that view. Smaller, more specific shelves helped discovery, early movers did best, and a broader audience did not always mean more revenue per user. None of that can be judged from install counts alone.
That is why we built Apptenium to keep listing scans, keyword tracking, competitor intelligence and performance data such as downloads and revenue in one place. When your category rank, your keyword ranks and your revenue sit side by side, you can see what a change really did and decide what to do next. Each scan also produces practical, copy-ready suggestions, so the metadata work that should accompany a move is not left to guesswork.
Mike
Measure the move with Apptenium
If you are weighing a category change, the first job is a clean baseline and a clear view of the competitors in each candidate category. Apptenium’s Free plan gives you a limited number of scans each month to audit your listing, and the Pro plan is $9.99 per month with unlimited scans and premium features. You can compare both on the pricing page.
For a no-cost starting point, the free ASO tools include a scanner you can run on your current listing before you decide anything.
FAQ
Can I change my app’s category after it is published?
Yes. On the App Store the category is part of your app information, and you edit it according to your app’s status, usually with a new version. On Google Play you change it in the Play Console, and the update can take up to 24 hours to show. Plan the change so you can measure it cleanly.
Will changing my category improve my rankings?
It changes where you appear and who you compete with, so your category rank and browse traffic can shift. Studies of store category redesigns found more downloads for apps in smaller, more specific categories. The result depends on how well the new category fits your app, so track rank, installs and revenue per user before and after.
Is it against the rules to pick a category that does not match my app?
Apple says the category should accurately reflect the app’s core experience, and an inappropriate choice is against the App Review Guidelines. Choose the category where shoppers would naturally look for an app like yours. That protects you from rejection and sends you the right audience.
How long should I wait before judging the result?
Give it several weeks. Early movements can settle, and a single week is too noisy to read. Compare the trend in category rank, keyword rank, conversion and revenue per user against your baseline, then decide whether to keep the new category.
Sources
- Categories and Discoverability, Apple Developer
- App information reference, App Store Connect Help
- Choose a category and tags for your app or game, Google Play Console Help
- Platform Categorization and Complement Performance, Wharton (Zhang et al., 2022)
- Song and Lee, ICIS 2024 Proceedings
- Ershov, The Effects of Consumer Search Costs on Entry and Quality
- Ershov, Variety-Based Congestion in Online Markets
- Product variety and congestion effects online, American Economic Association