App store conversion rate: how it is calculated, what is good

Conversion rate is the share of people who see your app and then take the install step. Apple measures it from unique device impressions to downloads; Google, since mid-2026, from store listing visitors to Install, Open or Pre-register clicks. The two numbers start at different points of the funnel, so never compare an App Store rate with a Play rate.

How does each store calculate conversion rate?

Each store uses its own numerator and denominator. Apple starts at the impression (your app shown on the Today, Games, Apps or Search tab for more than one second); Google starts at the store listing visit.

	App Store	Google Play
Metric name	Conversion Rate	Click-through Rate (CTR); legacy: store listing conversion rate
Numerator	Total downloads and pre-orders	Unique users who clicked Install, Open or Pre-register (legacy: store listing acquisitions)
Denominator	Impressions (Unique Devices)	Store listing visitors
What an impression or visit is	Your app viewed on the Today, Games, Apps or Search tabs for more than one second; product page views are included	A user who visited your listing and did not already have the app installed on any device
Where to find it	Apps, your app, Analytics tab, Acquisition, Sources (pick Conversion Rate in the metric menu)	Grow users > Store performance > Conversion analysis
Shown from	At least five first-time downloads or pre-orders	When the report has data; terms with too few visitors fall into "Other"

In formula form:

App Store: conversion rate = (total downloads + pre-orders) ÷ unique device impressions
Google Play: CTR = unique users who clicked Install, Open or Pre-register ÷ store listing visitors

Worked example. A habit tracker called Notara gets 20,000 unique device impressions and 400 downloads on the App Store in a week: its conversion rate is 400 ÷ 20,000 = 2.0%. On Google Play the same week, 3,000 people visit its listing and 900 tap Install: its CTR is 30%. Neither number is "better"; the first counts everyone who scrolled past the icon, the second only people who opened the page.

Google Play changed its store listing reports in mid-2026. Its help page dates the change to July 2026 (one paragraph says June 2026). Click-through Rate "replaces the legacy Conversion Rate metric"; the acquisition-based figures stay available in Statistics and in exports. If your Play conversion jumped that month, check the definition before you celebrate.

Is there an official conversion rate benchmark?

Yes, exactly one, and it comes from Apple. On its custom product pages page Apple writes: "Developers see a 2.5 percentage point increase on average when referring people to a custom product page. This is a 156% increase compared to the 1.6% average conversion rate on default product pages."

Read it carefully:

1.6% is Apple's average for default product pages, across developers. It is not a target for your category, country or traffic mix.
+2.5 percentage points is the average lift Apple reports when people are referred to a custom product page, for example from an ad or a link that matches what they were looking for.
Google publishes no public average for Play listings.

Treat every other "app store conversion benchmark" as a third-party sample, and before you use one, check which apps, countries and sources it covers. The peer comparisons inside the two consoles are a better yardstick (see below).

Why do you have to split conversion rate by source?

You have to split it because each source brings people with a different intent, and the total moves whenever the mix moves even if your page did not change.

Store	Source in the report	What it covers
App Store	App Store search	Views and downloads from App Store search, including ads shown in search results
App Store	App Store browse	Browsing the Today, Games or Apps sections
App Store	App referrer	A link in another app, including apps that load your page with StoreKit and Apple apps such as Messages (not Safari); on iOS, taps from browsers other than Safari also count here
App Store	Web referrer	A link on a website opened in Safari
Google Play	Google Play search	Searches for your app's name or closely associated brand, not counting ads on search results
Google Play	Google Play explore	Browsing, plus taps on search autocomplete suggestions and category searches such as "racing game"
Google Play	Ads and referrals	Ads and referral links, including the inline install overlay outside the Play Store

Two traps follow from these definitions:

On the App Store, "search" mixes organic and paid. Apple includes downloads from ads in search results in the App Store search source. If you start an Apple Ads campaign, your search conversion can change without any change to your page.
On Google Play, "search" means brand search only. Generic searches are counted under Google Play explore. A person typing your name already wants you, so do not compare a brand-search rate with a category-search rate.

How do you read your conversion rate, step by step?

Pick one country and one store. Mixed countries hide language and price effects.
In App Store Connect, open your app, go to the Analytics tab, then Acquisition, then Sources. Choose Conversion Rate in the metric menu and look at App Store search and App Store browse separately.
In Play Console, open Grow users > Store performance > Conversion analysis. Filter by traffic source, then by country, and read visitors, clicks and CTR.
Use whole weeks and compare the same weekdays, because traffic differs by day of the week.
Note anything that changed in the period: a release, a new screenshot set, an ad campaign, a rank jump for a broad keyword.
Only then compare with the peer benchmarks.

How do you build your own peer comparison?

Both consoles compare you with similar apps, so use them before any outside number.

App Store Connect: open the Analytics tab and choose Benchmarks in the sidebar. Apple forms peer groups by category, business model and download volume and shows the 25th, 50th and 75th percentile. Conversion Rate is one of the benchmarked metrics, with day 1, 7 and 28 retention, crash rate and proceeds metrics. Benchmarks are weekly and use differential privacy.
Play Console: the click-through rate chart in Conversion analysis compares your daily rate with your peers' median, 25th and 75th percentile; the breakdown table compares your total for the period with the peers' median for the last 28 days. Benchmarks only appear when you view performance by country, language, install state or traffic source, and only when the peer set has enough data. The Statistics page also has a Compare to peers tab.

Stores do not show a named rival's conversion rate, and no outside tool can read it. What you can compare directly is what decides who gets the impression: rank on shared keywords, rating counts, screenshots and text.

What changes conversion rate besides your page?

Before you credit or blame a new screenshot set, rule these out:

Traffic mix: more browse or ad traffic, a feature, or a new referral link.
Rank on broad keywords: ranking for a popular, loosely related search adds impressions from people with weaker intent, so the rate can fall while downloads rise.
Ratings and price: your rating can show in App Store search results, so a drop in average rating, or a new price, changes how people react before they open the page.
Season and country: holidays and paydays change who is browsing.
Definitions: Apple counts pre-orders once; Google moved to click-based metrics in 2026.

Common mistakes: comparing App Store and Play rates; reading the all-sources total; comparing a week with an Apple Ads launch to a week without; judging a change after two days.

How Uptika helps

Start with the free Listing X-Ray: paste your store link and see your rating against the category top 10 and three concrete fixes. In the panel, Analytics (Starter) puts your App Store Connect and Play Console downloads, sources and countries in one place, and Keyword radar (free) shows your daily rank, popularity and difficulty per keyword, so you can see whether a conversion change came with a rank change. The Apple Ads pages (Starter) show spend and cost per install next to your organic rank for each keyword. Create a free account; the rest of the reading guide is in App Store Connect analytics and Play Console reports.

Questions

What is a good app store conversion rate?

There is no single good number, because the rate depends on the source, the category, the country and how the store counts it. The useful definition of good is "at or above the median of apps like yours", which both stores show you: Apple in the Benchmarks section of App Store Connect Analytics, Google in the click-through rate benchmarks of Play Console.

What is the average App Store conversion rate?

Apple states a 1.6% average conversion rate on default product pages, and a 2.5 percentage point increase on average when people are referred to a custom product page. Apple publishes no other average, so treat any other figure as a third-party sample.

Is there a Google Play conversion rate benchmark?

Google publishes no public average. Inside Play Console, the store listing click-through rate chart compares your daily rate with your peers' median, 25th and 75th percentile, and the Statistics page has a Compare to peers tab.

How is conversion rate calculated in App Store Connect?

Apple defines Conversion Rate as total downloads and pre-orders divided by unique device impressions. A pre-order counts once, when it is placed, and is not counted again when the app downloads.

Why did my Google Play conversion rate change in 2026?

Google changed the store listing reports in mid-2026: the main rate is now a click-through rate based on unique Install, Open and Pre-register clicks, which replaces the legacy Conversion Rate. The old acquisition-based figures are still in Statistics and in exports, so compare like with like.