How to check your app ranking in App Store and Google Play

Your app ranking is the place your app takes in store search for one keyword. It is the number that tells you whether people who type that keyword ever see your app. This guide covers how to check it by hand, why the store consoles do not show it, and how to follow it over time.

What "app ranking" actually means

A ranking only makes sense with three things attached to it:

• A keyword. Your app can be first for its own name and nowhere for the term that brings installs.
• A country. Each store builds search results per country, so the same keyword gives different results in the US and in the UK.
• A store. The App Store and Google Play rank apps separately, and a position on one says nothing about the other.

Category charts are a separate list with their own rules. If that is the ranking you are after, we cover it in how many installs it takes to rank in an App Store category.

How to check your app ranking by hand

The quickest check takes a minute:

1. Open the App Store or Google Play on your phone.
2. Type the keyword exactly as your users would.
3. Scroll down and count until you reach your app.

It works for a quick look. It stops working as soon as you need more than that:

• Another country. The store shows results for the country your account is set to. Google Play says your country or region determines what content you find in the store, and you can change it once every 90 days at most. Apple lists its own conditions for changing the country of an Apple Account, from spending the account balance to leaving Family Sharing.
• More than a few keywords. Ten keywords in three countries is thirty searches a day, and two of those countries are not the one your account is set to.
• History. A hand count gives you today. It cannot tell you where the app stood last Tuesday, and that comparison is what you need when something changes.

Why App Store Connect and Play Console do not show it

Both stores give you search data, and neither gives you positions.

App Store Connect counts views and downloads that came from App Store search. Its analytics have no filter or dimension for a keyword or a place in the results, checked on 4 November 2026.

Google Play Console has a search term dimension: the term a person searched for before opening your store listing. That tells you which keywords bring visitors. It does not tell you where your app stood for them.

So the consoles answer "how many people came from search". The ranking answers "for which keyword, and how visible were we". You need both.

How to track your app ranking over time

A rank tracker checks the keywords you give it in the countries you pick and keeps the history. On Rankforge the tracker is free, and opening an account needs no card:

1. Add your app. Sign up and add the app you want to follow.
2. Add the keywords you work with. Start with the terms in your title and keyword field, and the ones you plan to grow on. The tracker follows the keywords you add, so pick them yourself.
3. Read the history. The tracker saves the position for each keyword every day, so you see where the app stood before a change, during it, and after.

Note. Tracking shows the position. It does not move it. If a keyword matters and the app sits outside the top 10, that is where keyword installs come in.

What to do when your ranking drops

Positions change from one day to the next, and most of that movement happens below first place: we counted a month of daily snapshots for ten keywords. Before you act, look at the last week and run through these checks:

• Is it one keyword or many? If one keyword fell, start with that keyword and the apps now above you. If a dozen fell on the same day, start with your app and its listing.
• What changed on your side? Put the date of any change to your metadata next to the chart. The App Store reads the title, subtitle and keyword field, and Google Play reads the title, short description and full description.
• What changed around you? Search the keyword yourself and see which apps now sit above yours.
• What do new reviews say? A run of low ratings after an update is worth reading before you change anything else.

What a ranking looks like during and after a campaign

In one of our cases, an antivirus app in Australia sat eighth for its main keyword, reached second place on day five of a keyword campaign and stayed between second and fourth while the installs ran. After the installs stopped, it slipped one place a day and settled at seventh. A single check on any of those days would have shown one number, and the tracked line shows the whole run.

Where Rankforge fits

• Checking one keyword today. You do not need us for that: the store search answers it in a minute.
• Following keywords across countries and days. The tracker checks the keywords you add in the countries you pick, on the App Store and Google Play, and saves the position every day. It does not choose keywords for you.
• Moving a keyword up. Keyword installs run on both stores. On the App Store you choose between live installs, made by people, and installs. On Google Play there are two types, Premium and Standard, and both are automated.
• Replacing the store consoles. We cannot do that. Views, downloads and search terms stay in App Store Connect and Play Console, and installs from a campaign arrive there mixed in with your usual traffic.