Chart glossary
The words that keep coming up on our rank and insight pages, each explained in a sentence or two. Every term matches what we actually record and calculate.
- Top Free / Top Paid / Top Grossing chart
- Apple's public App Store lists: the most downloaded free apps, the most downloaded paid apps, and the apps with the highest revenue. Each list exists per country and, where Apple publishes it, per category.
- Chart position
- An app's place on one list in one country on one day. Position 1 is the top. The same app can have a different position in each country and category.
- Storefront
- The App Store of one country. Prices, availability and charts differ between storefronts, so a position is only meaningful together with its country.
- Snapshot
- One day's copy of a chart, taken once a day. Comparing snapshots is how we know who moved, who is new and who left.
- Mover
- An app that climbed or fell the most between two snapshot days on the same chart.
- Early signal
- An app taking off in another country's chart before it appears in the US top 100. A hint that it may arrive in the US, not a prediction.
- Topic share
- The part of the free overall top 100 that belongs to one topic over a period of days. An app can count for up to three topics.
- Complaint
- A 1- or 2-star App Store review whose title or text contains words for a topic (for example 'subscription' or 'refund' for price). One review can count for several topics.
- Subscription signal
- One of three public signs that an app is moving from a one-time price to a subscription: its US price went from paid to free, its release notes announce a subscription or Pro plan, or a wave of price complaints. A hint, not proof.
- Indie developer
- In our indie pages, a small or solo developer, as opposed to a company with a large portfolio. See the indie page for how we tell them apart.