iOS Conversion Rates: A Closer Look at the Weekdays and Countries That Are Driving the Most Downloads

You know that Apple released its Analytics dashboard for iOS developers in April. And you know that Sensor Tower launched a corresponding App Analytics Metrics module last week.

Using the combination of these two platforms, our data science team has been analyzing mobile trends that were previously unknown. Because Apple's Analytics now display app profile views and download numbers, it's now possible to get an accurate picture of an app's conversion rate.

We've uncovered information on which weekdays and countries see the greatest success with conversion. Welcome to the latest industry knowledge you absolutely cannot miss.

A Note About Our Data

First of all, iOS app users are given a choice whether or not to "opt in" and provide their personal data. The App Analytics dashboard displays what percentage of an app's users have agreed to share data, so the subsequent reported metrics are calculated from this group of users.

This post considers App Analytics metrics from April 1, 2015 through July 28, 2015. For our analysis of highly converting weekdays, we focused specifically on apps in the United States, and used a sample set of around 60,000 apps.

Which Days of the Week Have the Highest Conversion Rates?

The graph above shows the split between app profile page views, and app downloads, for each day of the week. You'll notice that both devices' download rates are higher than app profile views for the majority of the week. Then, on Friday and Saturday, views take a massive jump and surpass downloads, meaning that casual app store browsing is a more common occurrence over the weekend. Downloads, however, are also at their highest point on Sunday, with Wednesday (for iPad) and Thursday (iPhone) seeing the lowest number of downloads.

What does this mean for the actual conversion rates? Let's take a look.

Because app profile views took such a large leap on Fridays and Saturdays, this reduced the overall conversion rate for the two days. In terms of comparing profile views to download numbers, the gap closes on Monday, meaning it has the highest conversion rate for the week.

Which Countries Have the Highest Conversion Rates?

We created a list of ten top-performing markets to see what conversion rates looked like around the globe. On both devices, Australia, Canada and Great Britain vied for the top three slots. The United States fell in quite different places depending on device. Specifically, conversion rates were much higher for iPad than on the iPhone.

In terms of device performance around conversion for each country, it's also apparent that iPhone apps convert more readily than iPad apps.

These stats are truly just the tip of the iceberg. The Sensor Tower Data Science team will continue to mine trends and tips from Apple's App Analytics Metrics. We hope this data will provide valuable, ongoing insights and benchmarks for app performance in variable scenarios. Stay tuned for a continued series of blog posts on this subject!