Google Play market data: what it is and how to read it

Entry thresholds, the share of new apps and the share of local apps, and why together they describe a market better than its size.

Size is not the question

Every report tells you that India and Brazil are huge. That does not tell a new app whether it can be seen there. The useful question is: how much does it take to enter the visible part of the store, the top charts?

Three numbers per market

• Top 100 threshold: installs of the app sitting at position 100 of a category's free chart. Low means the chart is reachable.
• New in top: the share of the top 200 released in the last 12 months. High means the chart rotates and newcomers break in.
• Local in top: the share of the top 200 offered in no more than three countries. High means local products beat global giants there.

Reading them together

A category with a low threshold, a high new share and a high local share is a market where a focused local app can climb quickly. A high threshold with a low new share is a closed club of incumbents.

Getting the numbers

curl -H "X-API-Key: $API_KEY" \
  "https://apiplay.info/api/v1/markets?sort=new_share&order=desc"

curl -H "X-API-Key: $API_KEY" \
  "https://apiplay.info/api/v1/markets?country=ID"

The first call ranks all countries; the second lists every category of Indonesia with its thresholds.