KEN’S CAT LOG
▤Daily App Store Report

Daily App Store Report 2026-09-21

2026-09-21 saw all 468 charts collected, totaling 45,710 rows. The strongest signal was DeluxeWare launching two weather apps simultaneously across multiple countries (Rain Radar Pro in four markets including KR #14, and Weather Now PRO in three). Monthly gains (vs. the baseline of 2026-08-24, 28 days earlier) are concentrated in two areas: SQUARE ENIX titles in JP and newcomers in the US (with Muse from Meta reaching #1 overall/free).

1. New Entries

Today's strongest signal is not a single chart, but simultaneous entry across multiple countries. DeluxeWare pushed two weather/paid apps on the same day: Rain Radar Pro (KR #14, DE #38, JP #40, GB #47) and Weather Now PRO (KR #36, JP #41, DE #53). On the revenue side, Muscle Monster 운동 플래너 entered four countries (including KR #51), while Upwork entered business/grossing in three countries. In utilities, Magic Packet: WOL ranked as high as HR #3. HR is a market where newcomers can immediately break into the top ranks, with Tisch Fishing Europe reaching sports/paid #1.

2. Sharp Monthly Gains

The baseline date, 2026-08-24, is the earliest date in the archive and was 28 days ago, so this is not yet a full month of data. The biggest gain was JP's WalkColor at #10 (+88). JP saw broad gains across SQUARE ENIX titles (DQM3 #15 +81, DQX Offline overall #22 +77, Terry's Wonderland SP #13 +63, Dragon Quest Walk grossing #14 +64, FF7 #22 +64). Absent from the baseline but now at #1 are the US's Muse from Meta (both overall/free and productivity/free #1), 2AM CAM, and JP's 超かぐや姫！アラーム.

3. By Tier

top (1–10) was stable, with 85% held / 2% new / |Δ|2.9, while bottom (51–100) turned over quickly at 69% held / 19% new / |Δ|9.7. mid sat between them at 81% / 7% / 6.8. Google held the most slots in every tier (top 123, mid 152, bottom 65).

4. By Country

New-entry counts were highest in HR at 1,047, followed by DE at 1,043 and US at 954; KR at 788 and JP at 805 were lower. Top-10 retention was high in the US at 87% and JP at 86%, while HR was lowest at 83%. Monthly-gain details appeared only for JP and US; DE/GB/HR/KR showed “—.” TestFlight, Duolingo, Procreate Pocket, and Minecraft were top-10 hits in all six markets.

5. By Category

The most active category was ios-sports (80% top-10 retention), followed by ios-developer-tools / ios-reference / overall at 81%. New entries were especially numerous in ios-utilities (345), ios-music (335), and ios-education (326). Conversely, ios-photo-video (91%) and ios-magazines-newspapers (90%) were stagnant, while ios-shopping had just 75 new entries.

Key Findings

1. DeluxeWare launches two weather/paid apps across multiple countries simultaneously — Rain Radar Pro leads with KR #14 across four markets

Rain Radar Pro - 실시간 날씨 지도 entered ios-weather/paid on the same day at KR #14, DE #38, JP #40, and GB #47; DeluxeWare's Weather Now PRO also appeared at KR #36, JP #41, and DE #53. This is not a coincidental event in one market, but a simultaneous multi-country launch by one publisher—the earliest signal of a new trend that today's data can reveal. It indicates movement on the weather-paid-app shelf and should be the highest-priority starting point for competitive planning.

Confidence: High

2. Simultaneous multi-country revenue-chart entries: Muscle Monster enters grossing in four countries, Upwork in three

Muscle Monster 운동 플래너 (TechPioneers Limited) entered ios-health-fitness/grossing at KR #51, JP #91, DE #93, and GB #98, while Upwork entered ios-business/grossing at KR #19, DE #90, and JP #97 on the same day. Simultaneous entry across multiple countries on revenue charts—not free charts—is evidence that monetization flows are working, with fitness subscriptions and work-related subscriptions moving at the same time.

Confidence: High

3. Three developer-focused free apps enter simultaneously — Cloudflare Remote, Carnets, and Stream

In ios-developer-tools/free, Cloudflare Remote (KR #51, JP #71, US #96), Carnets - Jupyter (GB #67, DE #92, HR #92), and Stream (KR #82, HR #96, GB #99) each entered three countries on the same day. The category's 81% top-10 retention is among the lowest of all 26 categories, with both leaders and lower ranks turning over. Developer tools are today's most open shelf.

Confidence: High

4. HR is a market where newcomers can immediately enter high ranks — sports/paid #1, finance/grossing #2, utilities/paid #3

In HR, Tisch Fishing Europe debuted at ios-sports/paid #1, Bitsgap: Crypto Trading Bots at ios-finance/grossing #2, NDI Capture at ios-photo-video/paid #2, and Magic Packet: WOL at ios-utilities/paid #3. HR had the most new entries among the six markets at 1,047 and the lowest top-10 retention at 83%, a structure where high rankings can be reached with relatively few downloads. It is the most efficient market for test launches.

Confidence: High

5. Monthly gains show broad momentum across SQUARE ENIX titles in JP — DQM3 #15 (+81), DQX Offline overall #22 (+77)

Compared with the baseline of 2026-08-24 (28 days earlier and the archive's oldest date), Dragon Quest Monsters 3 reached JP ios-games/paid #15 (+81); 드래곤 퀘스트 X 오프라인 reached JP overall/paid #22 (+77) and ios-games/paid #19 (+62); Terry's Wonderland SP reached overall/paid #13 (+63); Dragon Quest Walk reached ios-games/grossing #14 (+64); and FINAL FANTASY VII reached #22 (+64). This is not one title rising in isolation, but the entire catalog being lifted, likely due to a promotion or anniversary. Demand for legacy RPGs in JP is currently cresting.

Confidence: High

6. Absent on the baseline, now #1: Muse from Meta simultaneously takes the US's overall and productivity free-chart crowns

Muse from Meta (Meta Platforms, Inc.) was absent from the 2026-08-24 baseline charts, then simultaneously reached US overall/free #1 and ios-productivity/free #1 on 2026-09-21. Other apps absent on the baseline but now entering high ranks include 2AM CAM at US ios-photo-video/paid #1, 超かぐや姫！アラーム at JP ios-entertainment/paid #1, and トルネコの大冒険 at JP overall/paid #2. The US free tier still leaves room to rise from unknown to #1 in 28 days.

Confidence: High

7. US monthly gains are led by prediction markets and practical tools — Kalshi at overall/free #4 (+76), Instagram at photo-video grossing #3 (+67)

In the US, Kalshi: Trade Football & more reached overall/free #4 (+76), CalcTape reached ios-finance/paid #19 (+76), Epic - Kids' Books reached ios-education/free #17 (+71), and Five Guys reached ios-food-drink/free #6 (+70). Among major players, Instagram rose to US ios-photo-video/grossing #3 (+67), while Google Gemini rose to JP ios-productivity/grossing #6 (+68). In the US, sports-betting-related apps and practical personal-finance and learning apps are taking off simultaneously.

Confidence: High

8. The top is stable while the tail turns over: top is 85% held / 2% new / |Δ|2.9; bottom is 69% / 19% / |Δ|9.7

Among ranks 1–10 (4,675 slots), 85% of rows remained in the same tier as the previous day, only 2% were new, and the average movement was an exceptionally stable 2.9 ranks. Ranks 11–50 were 81% / 7% / 6.8, while ranks 51–100 (22,497 slots) were 69% / 19% / 9.7, with turnover concentrated almost entirely in the tail. Google also held the most slots in every tier—123 in top, 152 in mid, and 65 in bottom—followed by Microsoft with 82 in mid and 41 in bottom. The practical entry point for newcomers is the 51–100 range; breaking from there into the top 10 requires a different kind of force.

Confidence: High

9. Global top-10 hits across all six markets are concentrated in development, learning, and creative tools

The qualifying apps are TestFlight (all #1 in DE/GB/HR/JP/KR/US), Duolingo (education/free and grossing #1 in all six markets), Procreate Pocket (graphics-design/paid #1 in all six), Minecraft (#1 in five markets and #3 in JP), and Kling AI (graphics-design/free #1 in five markets and #6 in JP). LinkedIn was #1 in business/grossing across four markets, and Replit was #1 in four markets. The three cross-border themes are AI creation, learning, and development, and they should be considered separately from concepts with strong local flavor.

Confidence: High

10. KR developer-tool revenue is heating up independently — Boya OS #4 (+88), MintFlow #11 (+82), Supanator #17 (+81)

Three of KR's top five day-over-day gainers were in ios-developer-tools/grossing: Boya OS #4 (+88), MintFlow: VPN 및 HTTPS 캡처 #11 (+82), and Supanator: Supabase Manager #17 (+81). In addition, CodexBar Usage Monitor debuted at paid #3 in the same category, TinyServer reached #3 (+70) in JP, and Moshpit: Terminal for Agents debuted at paid #4 in GB. Paid tools for engineers are moving simultaneously in KR, JP, and GB, so this is not a localized phenomenon.

Confidence: High

11. ios-sports turns over quickly (80% top-10 retention), while ios-photo-video is stalled (91%)

The lowest top-10 retention rate was ios-sports at 80%, followed by ios-developer-tools, ios-reference, and overall at 81%, then ios-medical, ios-travel, ios-lifestyle, and ios-graphics-design at 82–83%. Conversely, ios-photo-video at 91%, ios-magazines-newspapers at 90%, ios-news at 88%, and ios-social-networking at 88% showed little movement. In absolute new-entry counts, ios-utilities had 345, ios-music 335, and ios-education 326, while ios-shopping had the fewest at 75. Target sports / developer-tools / reference; avoid new entry into photo-video and magazines.

Confidence: High

12. Only JP and US showed monthly-gain details; DE/GB/HR/KR displayed “—”

The country section listed monthly gains only for JP (including WalkColor #10 +88) and US (including Kalshi #4 +76); DE, GB, HR, and KR had none. No major gains versus 2026-08-24 were extracted for those markets, leaving only same-day movement to assess (DE's nPlayer Plus #8 +80, GB's TargetScan #5 +92, HR's bergfex #8 +83). At this point, only JP and US support discussion of medium-term trends.

Confidence: Medium

Recommended Actions

  • Track DeluxeWare's two weather/paid apps—Rain Radar Pro (KR #14, DE #38, JP #40, GB #47) and Weather Now PRO (KR #36, JP #41, DE #53)—daily under the same IDs for the next three days. Whether their simultaneous multi-country entry persists or disappears after one day will determine whether to pursue weather-app concepts.
  • Make HR the first-choice test-launch market. It had the most new entries among six markets at 1,047 and the lowest top-10 retention at 83%; newcomers such as Tisch Fishing Europe at sports/paid #1 and Magic Packet at utilities/paid #3 are immediately landing at high ranks.
  • Focus concept capacity on ios-sports (80% top-10 retention), ios-developer-tools (81%), and ios-reference (81%); avoid new entry into ios-photo-video (91%) and ios-magazines-newspapers (90%). Today's data indicates that the latter shelves have no open seats.
  • Elevate paid tools for engineers as the next area to investigate. Alongside KR's three grossing gainers (Boya OS +88, MintFlow +82, Supanator +81), TinyServer reached JP #3 (+70) and Moshpit debuted at GB paid #4, with all three markets moving at once.
  • Check off-store information to identify what drove the rise in JP's legacy SQUARE ENIX titles (DQM3 +81, DQX Offline +77, Terry's Wonderland SP +63, FF7 +64). If it is promotion-driven, estimate the concept's lifespan on the assumption that rankings will revert after the campaign ends.
  • Add Muse from Meta in the US (both overall/free and productivity/free #1) to the tracking list as a case of reaching #1 after being absent from the baseline, and use its 28-day launch curve as a benchmark for evaluating future new titles.
  • Resolve the GB/overall/TOP_GROSSING collection issue. GB overall grossing alone lacks day-over-day data, leaving a gap in cross-market comparisons.
  • Review the collection path for 274,186 missing rating records. The current analysis relies solely on rankings and cannot use a quality filter incorporating ratings.

Data Quality Notes

For the target date of 2026-09-21, all 468 target charts were collected (0 missing, 45,710 rows). Of these, 467 / 468 charts could be compared with the prior date, 2026-09-20; the one that could not was GB/overall/TOP_GROSSING. Because this chart was marked as degraded, no determination of “new entries” or “day-over-day movement” was made today for GB overall grossing rankings. Accordingly, GB has 77 comparable charts out of 78, and its 920 new entries do not include this chart. Rows from charts without a previous collection are not counted as new entries, so the absence of a comparison must not be interpreted as an appearance. The monthly baseline date of 2026-08-24 is the oldest collection date in the archive and was 28 days ago, so there is not yet a full month of history. Because there is no history before the baseline, “absent on the baseline” does not necessarily mean “newly appeared”; it may simply have been outside the collection window. In addition, ratings are missing for 274,186 records, so this report is based solely on rankings and presence/absence and makes no judgments based on rating scores.