App Store trends: weekly chart and search data

This page is the weekly snapshot of what moved on the US App Store and Google Play, published by Sonar (trysonar.app) and updated every Tuesday. It's built from Sonar's daily top-200 chart snapshots for both stores and Apple's weekly search-term rankings. The goal is simple — show which apps, searches and niches gained or lost ground, so you can check your own keywords against the shift.

This week: last week's AI photo and video leaders fell on both stores (Week of October 5, 2026)

AI photo and video apps that led last week fell on both stores. On the iOS top free chart, Momo: AI Photo & Video Maker went from 2 to 87, while AI Mirror: AI Photo Editor (was 47) and Shots: Photo & Video Generator (was 39) dropped out of the top 200 entirely. Google Play shows the same pattern — Momo fell from 17 to out of the top 200, Hype AI from 45 to out, and AI Mirror from 50 to 162.

The category didn't empty out on Google Play, though. Nexus - AI Video Generator climbed from 105 to 4, and Lynix: AI Photo & Video Maker entered the chart new at 48. Both come from the same developer, DQL TechLab. The chart data shows the swap, not the reason behind it — we're not going to guess.

Short-drama apps also traded places. On iOS, BlinkDrama climbed from 147 to 52 and DramaBox entered new at 64, while VibeShort: AI Short Dramas dropped out of the top 200 and PineDrama held at 9. On Google Play, DramaBox Lite went from 159 to 27 and FreeDrama from 174 to 72, while ReelShort slid from 25 to 55 and DramaWave from 34 to 101.

iOS top free chart

APTV's entry at 4 shows up in search too — the term "aptv" entered Apple's Productivity and Utilities search-term ranking at 10 with an Apple popularity of 79, and "ap tv" entered at 229 with 61. Two more iOS moves worth noting: reward apps lost ground, with PLAYFUL REWARDS: Earn Rewards falling from 10 to 127 alongside Freecash, and Trump Accounts: Official App from the U.S. Department of the Treasury entered new at 81.

Google Play top free chart

Unlike iOS, the reward lane went the other way on Google Play — JustPlay: Earn Money or Donate climbed from 192 to 86.

Top grossing

On the iOS top grossing chart, NFL fell from 25 to 132 and MLB from 35 to 120. NFL also dropped out of the iOS top free top 200 (it was at 59). The data doesn't say why. Games moved up instead: Pokémon TCG Pocket went from 157 to 83, Clash of Clans from 130 to 70, Fortnite from 136 to 81 and EA SPORTS FC Soccer Mobile 27 from 95 to 65, with DRAGON BALL Z DOKKAN BATTLE new at 79. The Google Play grossing top 10 didn't change at all; the biggest climber there was Amazon Kindle: Reading App, from 128 to 32.

Rising App Store searches

These are the generic terms that climbed or entered Apple's weekly search-term rankings for the week starting 2026-09-27, compared with the week starting 2026-09-20. Brand, app, game and person names are left out.

These four have little in common — they sit in four different genres, and the data shows that each one rose, not why. Apple ranks roughly the top 500 terms per genre, so "New" means the term newly crossed Apple's threshold for that genre, not that nobody searched for it before.

Niches to watch

• EQ & Sound Boosters (Google Play) — first seen 2026-09-28, at 25 on Sonar's 0-100 momentum estimate. Member terms include "headphone equalizer", "bass booster music player", "best eq for android", "music equalizer free" and "parametric equalizer for android".
• Casual Puzzle Adventure Games (Google Play) — first seen 2026-07-14, at 30 on Sonar's 0-100 momentum estimate. Member terms include "logic puzzles", "brain training games", "brain games for adults offline" and "3d puzzle games offline". Note the "offline" and "for adults" modifiers — worth checking their difficulty before you target them.

What this means for your ASO

• If you're in AI photo or video, check your ranks now. Last week's leaders fell on both stores in a single week, and on Google Play two apps from one developer climbed in the same week, so a stable position last Monday tells you little about this one. If your keywords slipped, work through the step-by-step diagnostic for a ranking drop before changing your listing.
• Look at the long-tail modifiers in rising niches. Terms like "parametric equalizer for android" or "brain games for adults offline" are more specific than the head term — run them through your keyword research workflow and check whether they're low-competition keywords for your app.
• Treat Google Play and iOS separately. Reward apps fell on iOS while JustPlay climbed on Google Play, and AI photo apps had a newcomer climb only on Google Play. The two stores don't move in lockstep — and Google Play weighs ranking factors iOS doesn't have.

How this report works

• Chart data: Sonar's daily snapshots of the US overall top charts, 200 deep, on both stores. iOS top free, iOS top grossing and Google Play top free compare 2026-10-04 with 2026-09-28; Google Play top grossing compares 2026-10-03 with 2026-09-27.
• New entries were absent from the entire baseline list. Climbers gained at least 30 places into the top 100. "Out of top 200" means the app dropped out of the chart entirely.
• Search terms: Apple's weekly search-term rankings, Sunday-to-Saturday weeks, comparing the week starting 2026-09-27 with the week starting 2026-09-20. They cover roughly the top 500 terms per genre in 15 consumer genres — absence means below Apple's genre threshold, not zero demand. Apple popularity is Apple's own 1-100 score. Brand terms are excluded from the rising-searches table.
• Niches: momentum is Sonar's 0-100 estimate from autocomplete, chart and search-term signals.
• Caveats: chart rank is not downloads, and grossing rank is not a revenue figure. Rank shows relative position on the chart, nothing more. Track your own App Store impressions for the numbers that matter to your app.

Previous weeks

This is the first edition.

FAQ

What apps are trending on the App Store this week?

On the US iOS top free chart, Threads climbed from 28 to 5, APTV entered new at 4, and BlinkDrama climbed from 147 to 52. In search, generic terms such as "acl" and "earthquake" climbed Apple's weekly rankings. AI photo and video apps fell — Momo: AI Photo & Video Maker went from 2 to 87, and AI Mirror and Shots dropped out of the top 200. On Google Play, Nexus - AI Video Generator climbed from 105 to 4.

How often is this report updated?

Every Tuesday, with the previous week's US App Store and Google Play chart movements.

Where does the data come from?

From Sonar's daily top-200 chart snapshots of the US App Store and Google Play, plus Apple's weekly search-term rankings. If you want this data for your own keywords, Sonar also offers a rank tracking API.

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