App Store Trends: How Viral Apps Hit #1 & Cash Out Millions

The App Store has quietly become one of the strongest barometers of culture.

Apple says developers have earned $320B+ since launch, but the more revealing story is how fast new apps now spike—and fade.

A close look at 2022–2023 shows a market ruled by TikTok-driven discovery, platform tailwinds like iOS widgets and on-device AI, and a monetization shift that lets lightweight products make millions in weeks.

Olivia Moore recently surfaced exactly how apps are topping the charts today and why they burn out so fast, and what lessons can we learn from these shifts.

The Social Apps That Replaced the Old Feed: BeReal, TikTok, and Gas

The top 3 apps by days at #1 in 2022 were BeReal, TikTok, and Gas—social, immediate, and built for small rings of friends rather than polished feeds.

Legacy platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat didn’t dominate the top at all; in fact, the top 5 spots went to social products, and 3 of those didn’t exist 2 years earlier.

• BeReal’s synchronized daily post forces candor and creates a shared offline moment.

• Gas turned anonymous, positive polls into a high-school-wide loop of daily compliments.

• LiveIn rode home-screen and lock-screen widgets to put friend updates directly on the phone.

The center of gravity moved from infinite scrolls to brief, low-friction interactions where intimacy and timing beat curation.

100,000 downloads daily gets #1—staying there is harder

Hitting #1 in the U.S. typically takes around 100,000 iOS downloads in a single day. Short-form video platforms can deliver the necessary awareness in hours, but staying on top is brutal.

• More than half of apps that touched #1 in 2022 held it for fewer than 5 total days.

• The number of distinct apps reaching #1 is rising, increasing churn at the summit.

• Network effects and ritualized behavior (like BeReal’s daily drop) are what prolong runs.

The pattern: viral spikes are easier to manufacture; durable retention is harder than ever.

Offline gossip loops outperform glossy acquisition campaigns consistently

Organic amplification still decides outcomes, but it arrives from unexpected vectors.

• A YouTuber’s satire revived Talking Ben the Dog years after launch and pushed it to #1.

• A heartfelt TikTok from a founder’s daughter helped a niche boating app jump into the top charts—yet even ~20M+ views couldn’t push it to #1, underscoring how steep the peak is.

• A Gas founder’s Today Show segment converted an estimated ~1,000 downloads—traditional PR rarely matches the conversion velocity of user-driven virality.

The takeaway: moments that trigger in-group conversation offline (classrooms, hallways, offices) routinely outperform planned media bursts.

Turn notifications into rituals and hallways into billboards

The winning growth loops don’t stop at the screen; they create synchronized behavior in the physical world.

• BeReal’s everyone-at-once notification produces a visible “BeReal moment” across campuses and offices, turning curiosity into downloads.

• Gas seeded tight high school networks where notifications (“someone voted for you”) drove irresistible hallway chatter.

These “ambient triggers” compress discovery, consideration, and conversion into minutes.

Technology shifts birth categories; timing beats originality every time

Two technology shifts reshaped the charts in 2022:

• Widgets as distribution: iOS home/lock-screen widgets birthed a wave—Locket Widget, NoteIt, LiveIn, Widgetable—by letting friends’ photos and notes land on screens without opening an app.

• On-device AI as utility: When models like Stable Diffusion became viable in mobile apps, AI art/avatars exploded. Lensa won not just on quality but on phone-native UX: uploading training photos is trivial; push notifications announce new styles; purchases are one tap.

Lesson: watch OS changes and model availability. When a platform unlocks a new surface area or capability, the first great mobile-native UX often outcompetes earlier web tools.

Monetization Now Happens Upfront—Not “Someday via Ads”

Consumer willingness to pay on mobile has matured, and teams are monetizing at the point of peak excitement.

• Gas generated roughly $6M on ~10M downloads in just months before selling to Discord.

• Lensa reportedly cleared $20M+ within weeks selling ~$8 avatar packs.

• The freemium baseline holds: charging for the initial download still depresses conversion.

• Subscriptions are stretching into premium “whale” tiers (e.g., $500/month experiments) while the classic ~$60/year tiers persist for mass markets.

• New buyers entered the chat: Calm launched a clinical offering (B2B model) paid for by insurers; other health/fitness apps are exploring institutional payers alongside consumer pay.

Playbook shift: design purchase moments into the viral arc, and price for segments—from casuals to whales to enterprise/insurer buyers.

Attention Economics: Addiction, Backlash, and “Invisible AI”

Two countervailing forces are shaping behavior:

• Backlash to infinite scroll: High-profile creators have stepped away from TikTok calling it “too addictive.” Many users delete TikTok only to drift to Instagram Reels—feeding another algorithm. Time-boxed formats like BeReal feel healthier and still social.

• Invisible AI personalization: TikTok popularized interest-based feeds that morph with each swipe; commerce apps like Temu apply similar ranking to deals and inventory. In minutes, feeds feel bespoke, driving session length and conversion without overt “AI” UX.

Caught in the middle, some startups now throttle their own virality—archiving over-performing posts to avoid flood-of-tourists cohorts that retention can’t yet support.

Content creates foot traffic; creators become your growth channel

Discovery is increasingly running through short-form video—and it shows up on Main Street.

• TikTok creators like Keith Lee can send life-changing foot traffic to small restaurants.

• A “next-gen Yelp” battle is emerging between TikTok and Instagram’s searchable map.

• Safety/behavior apps reward drivers for staying off their phones; campus-linked rewards and local merchant partnerships close the loop.

• Focus tools gamify attention (grow a tree/pet for staying offline), turning screen restraint into progress bars.

The common thread: mobile incentives now nudge real-world behavior at scale.

Vertical Social: Niche graphs outlast influencer economies

Networks anchored to real activities feel sticky and sane:

• Strava and Goodreads are systems of record first, social graphs second.

• Collectibles are perennial: a Squishmallow tracker climbed into the top 200 as fans cataloged finds and browsed others’ collections.

These products avoid the influencer treadmill by centering on doing, not performing.

Real-World Events (Hurricanes, launches, freebies) Leave Fingerprints on the Charts

App rankings are a cultural seismograph:

• NOAA Weather surged to #1 during Hurricane Ian.

• Starlink climbed the charts when SpaceX launched 52 new satellites.

• 7-Eleven and McDonald’s apps spiked to the top on their respective free Slurpee and French Fry days.

• A period-tracking app claiming encrypted protection rose to #1 just days after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Product, press, and planet all push on the same chart.

Split-screen trends resurrected Subway Surfers a decade later

Subway Surfers (2012) is proof how culture can reanimate software:

• Independent estimates pegged 2022 downloads near 300M—roughly 50% growth year-over-year—with lifetime reach approaching ~40% of the global population.

• The team’s “World Tour” refreshes art and locales every two weeks.

• Massive social presences (millions of subscribers across YouTube/TikTok) keep the brand visible.

• The kicker: TikTok creators began running Subway Surfers gameplay under unrelated videos as “split-screen filler” to hack attention—driving fresh installs a decade later.

Sometimes the feature isn’t in your app; it’s in the meme.

Globalization: From 85% U.S. to a Truly Global Top Chart

In 2021, ~85% of new #1 startups were U.S.-built; in 2022 that dropped to ~45%. International studios now break through routinely:

• BeReal (France) and TravelBoast (Russia) rode TikTok to mainstream U.S. adoption; TravelBoast collected ~500M views for its shareable travel maps.

• Temu (from Pinduoduo’s parent) dominated early 2023—#1 on 22 of the first 25 days—by combining deep discounts, gamified invites, and hyper-personalized feeds.

Distribution is democratized; the best algorithm + supply wins, regardless of HQ.

Founders’ Playbook: How to Build for This Market

The new path to impact prioritizes timing, tailwinds, and monetization discipline.

• Ride a platform unlock. Watch for OS features (widgets, lock-screen, notifications), model inflections (on-device AI), and data permissions that enable new UX.

• Design an offline trigger. Synchronize behavior (daily windows, geo-clusters like schools) to compress awareness and conversion.

• Optimize the first 48 hours. Build purchase moments into the initial novelty curve; price for both casuals and whales.

• Instrument retention before pouring fuel. If a post hits “too big, too fast,” be willing to dampen it until onboarding, notifications, and network loops are ready.

• Aim vertical if you can. Activity-anchored networks compound via utility, not virality alone.

• Stay global-ready. Keywords, captions, and creator seeding should assume cross-border adoption on day one.

A 3-month hit can fund your next decade

Most viral apps won’t become the next Facebook—and that’s okay.

If a product taps an evergreen human behavior (anonymity, compliments, creation, collecting), monetizes decisively during its viral window, and either evolves or exits quickly, a few months at the top can translate into meaningful revenue or an acquisition.

The opportunity to “build, monetize, and be done” has never been more real—and if you’re looking for themes with enduring demand, pets remain a surprisingly durable bet for cute, shareable, habit-forming products.

Today’s App Store is a flywheel of faster discovery, shorter attention, earlier monetization, and global breakout potential.

Virality is no longer the finish line—it’s the starting gun. Teams that align with platform shifts, create real-world hooks, and charge confidently from day one can convert fleeting moments into durable outcomes.

Top Tweets of the day

1/

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Before a stock goes viral, you see lots of people on social media hyping it up. I've seen this happen with Dogecoin live when Musk was tweeting about it. Since I have a programming background, I know it is totally possible to create such an app with the tools available.

2/

Anyone with a budget of $10,000 per month can create an AI influencer that can grow to 100k followers in a month.

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3/

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