How to Choose the Right App Store Category

Most developers choose their app's category in about ten seconds during the App Store Connect submission process. They pick whatever feels most obvious, submit, and never think about it again. This is a mistake that costs downloads every day the app is live.

Your category selection determines which top chart you compete in, which editorial features you are eligible for, how Apple's algorithm interprets your keyword relevance, and what expectations users bring to your listing. It is one of the few metadata decisions that affects every other aspect of your store presence -- search ranking, browse visibility, conversion, and featuring -- simultaneously. If you are building your complete ASO strategy, category selection deserves as much thought as your title and keywords.

This guide covers how category selection actually works on both iOS and Android, how to evaluate competitive density across categories, when a "less obvious" category is the strategically superior choice, and how to know when it is time to switch.

Why Category Choice Matters More Than You Think

The most direct impact of your category is on chart visibility. The App Store organizes top charts by category. Your app competes for chart positions only within its assigned primary category. Being ranked number 30 in Reference puts you on a scrollable list that browsing users actually see. Being ranked number 800 in Games puts you nowhere.

The difference in competitive intensity between categories is enormous. Games has more apps than many other categories combined. Photo & Video and Social Networking are similarly saturated. At the other end, categories like Weather, Reference, Developer Tools, and Medical have dramatically fewer competitors. An app that would be invisible in one category can be a top-50 chart app in another.

But chart visibility is only the most obvious effect. Category also functions as a contextual signal in Apple's search ranking algorithm.

The Invisible Ranking Factor

When a user searches for a term on the App Store, Apple's algorithm evaluates relevance using multiple signals: keyword match in your title, subtitle, and keyword field, your download velocity, your ratings, and your category. That last signal is the one most developers miss.

Category acts as a relevance modifier. A keyword like "meditation" carries more algorithmic weight for an app in Health & Fitness than for the same keyword attached to an app in Entertainment. This does not mean an Entertainment app cannot rank for "meditation" -- it means it has to work harder to do so, because the category context signal is weaker.

The implication is that your category choice has downstream effects on your entire keyword strategy. If your primary keywords align naturally with your category, you get a relevance boost on every keyword you target. If there is a mismatch -- say, a journaling app categorized under Social Networking rather than Lifestyle or Productivity -- you are fighting for keyword relevance with a handicap on every search query.

This does not mean you should always choose the category that most literally matches your keywords. Sometimes the strategically superior category is one with lower competition even if the keyword alignment is slightly weaker. But you need to understand the tradeoff.

How Categories Affect Search Ranking in Practice

The category-search interaction is easiest to see with a concrete example. Consider an app that helps users track their water intake. The obvious category is Health & Fitness. But the developer might also consider Lifestyle or Utilities.

In Health & Fitness, the keyword "water tracker" gets a strong relevance signal from the category context. The app is competing against hundreds of other health and fitness apps that also target "water tracker," but the keyword-category alignment is working in its favor. The top results for "water tracker" in the App Store are almost exclusively Health & Fitness apps.

If the same app were categorized under Utilities, it would have a weaker category-keyword relevance signal for "water tracker." It might rank slightly lower for that specific term. But it would face far less competition in the Utilities top charts, potentially gaining browse visibility that more than compensates for the slightly weaker keyword signal.

This is the core tension of category selection: keyword relevance boost versus competitive density. There is no universal answer. The right choice depends on your app's current strength, your keyword priorities, and the specific competitive landscape in each category.

Primary vs Secondary Category on iOS

Apple allows you to select both a primary and a secondary category for your iOS app. The primary category carries the heavy strategic weight: it determines your chart placement, provides the strongest relevance signal for search, and is the main category Apple's editorial team uses when considering apps for featuring.

The secondary category provides a lighter relevance signal and allows your app to appear in a second category's browse results. Think of it as extending your reach into an adjacent audience without giving up your primary positioning.

How to choose your primary: Pick the category where your strongest keywords have the best combination of relevance alignment and manageable competition. This is usually the category that most naturally matches your app's core function, but not always.

How to choose your secondary: Pick the category that captures a related audience your primary misses. A budgeting app with Finance as its primary might use Productivity as its secondary, capturing users who browse Productivity looking for tools to organize their lives. A meditation app with Health & Fitness as its primary might use Lifestyle as its secondary.

What to avoid: Do not pick a secondary category that creates an expectation mismatch. If users browsing the Education category encounter your meditation app and expect an educational product, the disconnect between expectation and reality will hurt your conversion rate and generate confused 1-star reviews. The secondary category should be a natural adjacent fit, not a reach for unrelated traffic.

Competitive Density: The Numbers That Matter

Not all categories are created equal. The gap in competitive intensity between the most and least competitive categories is not 2x or 3x -- it is closer to 50x or 100x.

As of early 2026, approximate app counts in selected iOS categories:

• Games: 250,000+
• Photo & Video: 50,000+
• Entertainment: 45,000+
• Health & Fitness: 35,000+
• Productivity: 30,000+
• Education: 30,000+
• Utilities: 25,000+
• Finance: 15,000+
• Weather: 5,000+
• Reference: 4,000+
• Developer Tools: 2,000+

These numbers alone do not tell the full story. What matters is not the total app count but the strength of the top competitors. A category with 50,000 apps where the top 10 are all indie apps with modest review counts is more penetrable than a category with 5,000 apps where the top 10 are all from major companies with millions of downloads.

How to Assess the Top 10

For each category you are considering, examine the top 10 apps across these dimensions:

1. Review count. Are the leaders in the hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands? This tells you the scale of competition for chart positions.
2. Average rating. Are the top apps at 4.0 or 4.7? Higher average ratings mean users in this category have more refined expectations.
3. Screenshot and listing quality. Are the top apps running polished, professional listings, or are there apps with mediocre screenshots and sparse descriptions in the top 10? The latter signals opportunity.
4. Last update date. Are the top apps updated regularly, or are some of them stale (last updated 2+ years ago)? Stale apps in top positions suggest the category is under-optimized and vulnerable to a well-executed newcomer.
5. Developer type. Are the top 10 all from large companies (Google, Apple, Meta) or are there indie developers and small studios in the mix? Categories with indie representation in the top 10 are more accessible.

If you find a category where several of the top 10 apps have under 5,000 reviews, mediocre screenshots, and have not been updated in over a year, you have found a category with real opportunity. Your well-optimized listing can realistically compete for chart visibility there.

Category-Specific Featuring: What Apple Looks For

Apple's editorial team curates featured app collections by category. Being featured drives a massive spike in downloads -- anywhere from 5x to 50x normal daily downloads depending on the feature placement. Your category determines which editorial opportunities are available to you.

Some categories receive more editorial attention than others. Health & Fitness, Productivity, and Education align with Apple's brand messaging around wellness, creativity, and learning. Apps in these categories get featured more frequently and more prominently. Utilities and Reference receive less editorial love, though they still get category-specific features.

Apple's editorial team looks for several signals when selecting apps to feature:

• Design quality. Apps that follow Apple's Human Interface Guidelines and feel "at home" on iOS get preference.
• Use of platform features. Apps that adopt new iOS features (widgets, Live Activities, Dynamic Island, StandBy Mode) are rewarded with editorial attention.
• Relevance to current events or seasons. A budgeting app is more likely to be featured in January (New Year's resolutions). A fitness app in January. A travel app in summer.
• Category fit. An app that is a strong, clear representative of its category is easier for the editorial team to feature than one that straddles multiple categories ambiguously.

This last point matters for your category decision. If your app sits awkwardly between two categories, it is a weaker candidate for featuring in either one. Committing fully to one category and optimizing your listing to be the best representative of that category strengthens your featuring candidacy.

When Your App Fits Multiple Categories

A meal planning app could be Food & Drink, Health & Fitness, or Lifestyle. A habit tracker could be Productivity, Health & Fitness, or Lifestyle. A language learning app could be Education or Reference. This ambiguity is common, and the answer is not to pick the one that "feels right" -- it is to evaluate each option through a strategic lens.

Step 1: List all plausible categories for your app. Be honest about fit -- if users in a category would find your app genuinely useful, it belongs on the list.

Step 2: For each category, evaluate:

• Competitive density of the top 10 (review counts, update frequency, listing quality)
• Keyword-category alignment for your primary keywords
• Featuring frequency and editorial attention
• User intent match (would users browsing this category understand what your app does?)

Step 3: Score and compare. You are looking for the category where the combination of manageable competition, good keyword alignment, featuring potential, and user intent alignment is strongest.

For a habit tracker, the evaluation might look like this: Health & Fitness has strong keyword alignment for "habit tracker" but intense competition. Productivity has slightly weaker keyword alignment but less competition and strong featuring potential. Lifestyle has moderate keyword alignment and moderate competition. The right choice depends on the specific competitive landscape at the time of your decision and your app's current strength (review count, rating, brand recognition).

If you are a new app with zero reviews launching into a competitive space, the less competitive category is almost always the right initial choice. You can switch later once you have built up reviews and download velocity. Category selection should be part of your broader pre-launch ASO process, not a last-minute decision during submission.

The Strategic Category Switch

Category changes are underutilized. Most developers who choose a category at launch treat it as permanent. But a category switch is a legitimate strategic move that can be executed through a normal app update in App Store Connect or Google Play Console.

Signals that a switch is warranted:

• Your keywords consistently rank better in competitor listings that are in a different category.
• You have plateau'd on chart position despite strong metrics (good rating, consistent updates, growing downloads).
• Your app is frequently compared to or confused with apps in a different category.
• You are missing featuring opportunities because your app is a poor fit for your current category's editorial focus.

Risks of switching:

• Your chart position in the new category starts from scratch. You may not immediately appear on the charts at all.
• There may be a 1-2 week adjustment period as Apple re-indexes your app in the context of the new category. Keyword rankings can fluctuate during this period.
• If you have built brand recognition within your current category, switching creates temporary confusion.

How to minimize risk:

• Time the switch with a significant app update that includes other optimizations (new screenshots, refreshed metadata, new features). This gives you multiple positive signals arriving simultaneously.
• Do not switch during your highest-traffic period. If your app has seasonal traffic patterns, switch during a lower-traffic period to minimize the impact of temporary ranking disruption.
• Monitor keyword rankings daily for two weeks after the switch. Most fluctuations stabilize within 7-14 days.

iOS vs Android: Different Taxonomies, Different Strategies

Apple and Google use different category systems, and the strategic considerations differ between platforms. If your app is on both, your optimal category may legitimately be different on each platform. The differences between Play Store and App Store ASO go far beyond categories, but this is one of the most impactful divergences.

Apple offers approximately 27 categories for iOS apps. Google Play has over 30 categories plus additional tags and subcategories. The broader taxonomy on Android means you can often find a more specific, less competitive niche.

Specific examples of taxonomic differences:

• Apple has one "Health & Fitness" category. Google Play separates "Health & Fitness" from "Medical."
• Apple has "Food & Drink" as one category. Google Play offers more granular food-related options.
• Google Play has "Personalization" as a standalone category; Apple does not.
• Google Play's tag system provides an additional categorization layer that does not exist on iOS.

On Google Play, tags function as sub-categories and influence how your app appears in browse results and recommendations. Choosing the right tags in addition to the right category is an Android-specific optimization. If your app is a budget tracker, your category might be Finance, and your tags might include "Expense Tracking," "Money Management," and "Personal Finance." These tags help Google surface your app in relevant browse sections within the category.

The Data-Driven Category Selection Process

Here is the concrete process for making a category decision. Follow it when launching a new app or when reconsidering your current category.

1. List every plausible category. Include any category where users would find your app genuinely useful. Aim for 3-5 candidates.

2. Research the top 10 in each candidate category. For each of the top 10 apps, record: name, review count, average rating, screenshot quality (subjective 1-5), last update date, and developer type (indie/small studio/large company). This takes about 30 minutes per category.

3. Test keyword-category alignment. Search for your top 5 target keywords in the App Store. Note which category the top-ranking results belong to. If "habit tracker" returns mostly Productivity apps in the top 10, that is a signal that Productivity has stronger keyword-category alignment for that term than Lifestyle.

4. Check featuring history. Browse the "Today" tab and category-specific features for each candidate category. Note how frequently apps are featured and what types of apps get selected. This tells you both the featuring opportunity and the editorial bar in each category.

5. Score and decide. Weight competitive density most heavily if you are a new app. Weight keyword alignment and featuring potential more heavily if you are an established app with strong metrics.

6. Revisit every 6-12 months. The competitive landscape shifts. Categories that were under-served become crowded. Categories that were dominated see leaders age out. Your app's own strength changes over time. What was the right category at launch may not be the right category a year later.

StoreLit's Competitor Analysis and Category Intelligence

Evaluating competitive density across categories manually is tedious. It requires browsing each category's top charts, recording metrics for dozens of apps, and comparing the data. This is exactly the kind of systematic competitive analysis that benefits from automation.

StoreLit's ASO Audit analyzes your competitors across the metrics that matter for category strategy: review counts, rating distributions, listing optimization quality, and update patterns. The audit identifies where your app sits relative to competitors in your current category and whether the competitive dynamics suggest your category is a strong fit or a potential bottleneck.

Whether you use a tool or do the research manually, the principle is the same: category selection should be a data-informed strategic decision, not a default choice made once and forgotten.

Final Thought

Your category is not a label. It is a competitive arena. Choosing it strategically -- and being willing to change it when the data warrants -- is one of the simplest, lowest-risk optimizations available to you. It costs nothing, requires no code changes, and can meaningfully shift your app's visibility within weeks. The developers who treat category as a strategic lever have one more advantage over those who treat it as a checkbox.