The biggest movement today was PAWPRINT’s new release, ‘Aniimo,’ which debuted at #1 in free ios-games in DE, GB, KR, and US on the same day, while also appearing at #2 in JP and #24 in HR—a simultaneous launch across six markets. In JP, Bushiroad’s ‘BanG Dream! Our Notes’ took #1 in the same category, while its international version ranked #2 in KR, leaving the top of the free games charts almost completely reshuffled in a single day. Retention in the upper tier (ranks 1–10) remained stable at 83%, while the lower tier (ranks 51–100) saw 69% retention and 19% new entries, with activity concentrated at the tail.

1. New Entries

Today’s main story is ‘Aniimo’ (PAWPRINT INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT PTE. LTD). It entered free ios-games simultaneously across six markets: #1 in DE, GB, KR, and US; #2 in JP; and #24 in HR. This is qualitatively different from appearing on a single chart. In JP, Bushiroad’s ‘BanG Dream! Our Notes’ claimed #1, while its international version, ‘BanG Dream! Our Notes,’ debuted at #2 in KR. In news, ‘The White House’ appeared simultaneously in five markets: #10 in GB, #19 in HR, #22 in KR, #30 in DE, and #38 in JP. In developer tools, Superset (four markets), Juno (three markets), and Advanced IP Scanner (three markets) all entered on the same day, signaling turnover at the category level.

2. Sharp Monthly Gains

The reference date, 2026-08-24, is the oldest date in the archive, 29 days ago. This should be read with the caveat that it is not yet a full month. The top 30 gainers are almost entirely concentrated in JP and US; the digest explicitly shows no entries for DE, GB, HR, or KR. In JP, a resurgence of older SQUARE ENIX titles stands out: ‘Dragon Quest Monsters 3’ ranked #15 in paid ios-games (+81), while ‘Dragon Quest X Offline’ ranked #20 in paid overall (+79). Among titles absent on the reference date but now within the top 20, US title ‘Muse from Meta’ is #1 in both free overall and free productivity, while ‘Kalshi’ is #5 in free overall (+75).

3. By Tier

top (1–10) comprises 4,675 slots, with 83% retained, 2% new, and an average movement of 3. mid is 80%/7%/7.1, while bottom (51–100) comprises 22,482 slots at 69%/19%/9.9. This is the classic pattern of a stable head with a rotating tail. Google dominates top slot ownership with 124 slots, followed by Guild of Master Craftsman Publications Ltd with 30, Instagram with 28, Microsoft with 27, and OpenAI with 24.

4. By Country

HR had the most new entries at 1,070, followed by DE with 1,053, GB with 1,023, US with 991, JP with 818, and KR with 761. Top-10 retention was highest in US at 86%, followed by JP and KR at 84%; DE and GB were lower at 82%. Common fixtures include TestFlight (#1 in free ios-developer-tools across all six markets), Duolingo (#1 in paid ios-education across all six markets), and Minecraft (#1 in paid ios-games in five markets). Conversely, the recovery of Dragon Quest titles in JP and ‘Paris ci la sortie du Métro’ at #1 in KR (+75) reflect local factors.

5. By Category

The fastest-moving categories are ios-utilities (78% retained; 378 new entries), overall (78%), and ios-reference / ios-sports / ios-medical / ios-finance / ios-developer-tools (all 79%). In contrast, ios-social-networking at 92% and ios-magazines-newspapers at 91% barely moved. The categories with the most new entries were ios-utilities with 378, ios-music with 338, and ios-education with 335.

Key Findings

1. ‘Aniimo’ launches simultaneously in six markets, reaching #1 in free ios-games in four

PAWPRINT INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT PTE. LTD’s ‘Aniimo’ was absent in the previous snapshot on 2026-09-21, then appeared today in free ios-games at #1 in DE, GB, KR, and US; #2 in JP; and #24 in HR. A same-day appearance across multiple markets—especially at the very top—is the strongest signal in today’s data. In US, it was also absent on the reference date of 2026-08-24 and now sits at #1, making a coordinated global launch the most reasonable interpretation.

Confidence: High

2. JP’s #1 in free ios-games is ‘BanG Dream! Our Notes’; its international version is #2 in KR

Bushiroad Inc.’s ‘BanG Dream! Our Notes’ newly entered free ios-games in JP at #1. It was absent on the reference date of 2026-08-24 and is now #1. At the same time, BILIBILI HK LIMITED’s ‘BanG Dream! Our Notes’ debuted at #2 in KR, indicating that the same IP launched in Japan and Korea on the same day under separate IDs. It is worth tracking Japan-specific activity separately from its broader Asian rollout.

Confidence: High

3. ‘The White House’ enters free news in five markets on the same day

The Official White House’s official app entered free ios-news at #10 in GB, #19 in HR, #22 in KR, #30 in DE, and #38 in JP. Its simultaneous appearance in five non-US markets is the defining feature, indicating international interest rather than a US-market-only movement. News is a relatively quiet category with 86% retention, making this entry especially noticeable.

Confidence: High

4. Three developer tools enter multiple markets on the same day, while category retention is a low 79%

‘Superset: 100+ Coding Agents’ entered ios-developer-tools at #28 in GB, #31 in KR, #54 in US, and #61 in JP; ‘Python IDE & Jupyter – Juno’ entered at #32 in HR, #73 in GB, and #98 in KR; and ‘Advanced IP Scanner’ entered at #33 in HR, #67 in KR, and #91 in US. Three multi-market debuts overlapped in the category on the same day. The category’s top-10 retention rate was 79%—on the lower end among 26 categories—with 182 new entries. The shelf for developer-focused apps is shifting.

Confidence: High

5. The reference date of 2026-08-24 was 29 days ago, and monthly gains appear only for JP and US

The reference date is the oldest date in the archive, 29 days ago. It must be interpreted on the premise that a full month of history is not yet available. The market-by-market “monthly gains” section includes entries only for JP and US, with DE, GB, HR, and KR shown as “—” in the digest. This does not mean there was no monthly movement in those four markets; rather, the top-30 extraction was dominated by large gains in JP and US. Today’s data provides limited evidence for judging medium-term trends in DE, GB, HR, and KR.

Confidence: Medium

6. Older SQUARE ENIX premium titles rise sharply in JP over 29 days

‘Dragon Quest Monsters 3: The Dark Prince and the Elven Journey’ ranked #15 in paid ios-games in JP (+81), ‘Dragon Quest X: The Five Awakened Races Offline’ ranked #20 in paid overall (+79) and #18 in paid ios-games (+63), and ‘Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry’s Wonderland SP’ ranked #12 in paid overall (+64). In addition, ‘Torneko’s Great Adventure: Mystery Dungeon’ was absent on the reference date and is now #2 in both paid ios-games and paid overall in JP. A group of paid titles from the same publisher is moving together, making a sale or promotional campaign a likely explanation.

Confidence: High

7. In US, ‘Muse from Meta’ is #1 in both free overall and free productivity

Meta Platforms, Inc.’s ‘Muse from Meta’ was absent on the reference date of 2026-08-24 and is now #1 in both free overall and free ios-productivity in US. By simultaneously taking the category and overall top spots, it represents the largest structural change in the US market over these 29 days. Meanwhile, KalshiEX LLC’s ‘Kalshi: Trade Football & more’ has settled near the top of the overall chart at #5 in free overall in US (+75), suggesting growing presence for prediction-market apps as well.

Confidence: High

8. The head is stable while the tail rotates: 83% retention in top versus 69% retention and 19% new entries in bottom

top (ranks 1–10; 4,675 slots) had 83% retention, 2% new entries, and an average movement of 3. mid (ranks 11–50; 18,538 slots) was 80%/7%/7.1. bottom (ranks 51–100; 22,482 slots) was 69%/19%/9.9. Most new entries today occurred below rank 51, while the lineup at the top barely changed. New titles that did reach the top, such as Aniimo and BanG Dream!, should be treated as exceptional events.

Confidence: High

9. Google dominates top-10 slots with 124; a small group of major players occupies the upper ranks

Slot ownership in ranks 1–10 is Google 124, Guild of Master Craftsman Publications Ltd 30, Instagram, Inc. 28, Microsoft Corporation 27, and OpenAI OpCo, LLC 24. In mid, Google continues with 149 and Microsoft with 89, showing that the same companies hold both the top and middle tiers. For projects seeking a new entry point, the bottom tier—with 19% new entries—is a more realistic starting place than the top tier.

Confidence: High

10. HR has the most new entries at 1,070, with top paid and grossing charts reshuffled

All 78 charts in HR were comparable, yielding 1,070 new entries—the highest among the six markets. There was also considerable new inflow into upper ranks: ‘London Review of Books’ reached #1 in grossing ios-magazines-newspapers, ‘IIWII’ reached #2 in paid ios-photo-video, ‘Any Text · Widgets’ reached #2 in paid ios-utilities, and ‘Point of Care Ultrasound’ reached #3 in grossing ios-medical. The smaller market size means upper ranks can move more easily, which should be discounted, but it makes HR a suitable market for testing exposure for niche paid apps.

Confidence: Medium

11. The two fully global #1 titles across all six markets are TestFlight and Duolingo grossing

TestFlight (Apple) is #1 in free ios-developer-tools across DE/GB/HR/JP/KR/US. Duolingo is #1 in grossing ios-education across all six markets; in free charts, it is #1 in JP/KR/US and #2 in DE/GB/HR. Minecraft is #1 in paid ios-games in five markets (and #3 in JP), while Kling AI is #1 in free ios-graphics-design in four markets. Before discussing country-level differences, this group can be treated as a stable baseline.

Confidence: High

12. Category turnover gap: ios-utilities has 78% retention and 378 new entries, versus 92% retention for ios-social-networking

The most active categories were ios-utilities (78% top-10 retention and 378 new entries) and overall (78%), followed by ios-reference, ios-sports, ios-medical, ios-finance, and ios-developer-tools at 79%. By contrast, ios-social-networking at 92%, ios-magazines-newspapers at 91%, ios-navigation at 87%, ios-photo-video at 87%, ios-productivity at 87%, and ios-shopping at 87% were nearly static. In absolute new-entry volume, ios-utilities had 378, ios-music 338, and ios-education 335, compared with 73 for ios-shopping and 123 for ios-social-networking.

Confidence: High

13. Screen Detox Inc launches two titles across multiple markets in different categories at once

‘BePresent: Screen Time Tracker’ entered free ios-productivity at #41 in US, #61 in HR, and #73 in GB, while ‘BibleScroll: Christian Focus’ entered free ios-reference at #43 in KR, #51 in US, and #90 in DE. The same developer entering multiple markets in separate categories on the same day suggests advertising or promotion activity rather than a one-off burst of attention. This is a useful moment to observe if considering digital-detox or habit-focused projects.

Confidence: Medium

14. Large gains in grossing charts even among established major apps: US Instagram +67 and JP Google Gemini +69

Over 29 days, ‘Instagram’ rose to #3 in grossing ios-photo-video in US (+67), ‘Google Gemini’ rose to #5 in grossing ios-productivity in JP (+69), and ‘The Battle Cats’ rose to #7 in grossing ios-games in JP (+68). Even with a stable lineup at the top, grossing positions are moving substantially; it would be wrong to read the 83% top-tier retention figure as meaning there has been no change at the top.

Confidence: High

Recommended Actions

• Put ‘Aniimo’ (6759098797) at the top of the watchlist from tomorrow onward. Whether its DE/GB/KR/US #1 and JP #2 launch holds for two to three days or falls into the bottom tier will distinguish a genuine hit from launch-day boosting. In particular, whether HR #24 rises will be useful evidence.
• For Japan-focused coverage, treat ‘BanG Dream! Our Notes’ (JP #1) and its KR version, ‘BanG Dream! Our Notes’ (#2), as a single topic. The same-day Japan-Korea launch of the same IP has a broader angle than an article on either title alone.
• Make ios-developer-tools this week’s priority category. With 79% retention and same-day multi-market entries by Superset, Juno, and Advanced IP Scanner, the AI coding app shelf is actively changing. Contrasting this with the steady #1 position of TestFlight and Replit’s upper-chart presence will clarify the landscape.
• ‘Muse from Meta’ in US is #1 in both free overall and free productivity, and was absent on the reference date of 2026-08-24. It is the largest structural change over 29 days and merits a standalone piece.
• Treat SQUARE ENIX’s JP paid titles (DQM3 +81, DQX Offline +79, Terry’s Wonderland SP +64, and Torneko newly at #2) collectively as a simultaneous rise in older packaged titles rather than as separate stories. Continue tracking after the sale ends to confirm any pullback.
• Medium-term trends in DE, GB, HR, and KR cannot be judged from today’s data (the monthly-gains field is “—”). Hold off on work that makes medium-term claims for those four markets until the archive reaches one month, or limit such coverage to day-over-day evidence.
• Because GB/overall/TOP_GROSSING is experiencing degraded quality, avoid making definitive claims today based on GB’s overall grossing ranking. If necessary, corroborate with GB grossing charts in other categories.

Data Quality Notes

For the target date 2026-09-22, all 468 charts in scope were collected (0 missing), and 45,695 rows were analyzed. Comparison with the prior snapshot on 2026-09-21 was valid for all 468 of 468 charts, with no apparent new entries caused by charts missing from the previous snapshot. There is one instance of quality degradation in GB/overall/TOP_GROSSING, so rank and movement interpretations for that chart are less reliable than elsewhere. rating data is missing for 274,177 records, so this report does not make any judgments based on ratings. The reference date for monthly comparison, 2026-08-24, is the oldest date in the archive and was 29 days ago, so it is not strictly a full month. In addition, the monthly-gains field by market includes entries only for JP and US; DE, GB, HR, and KR are shown as “—,” meaning medium-term trends for those four markets cannot be inferred from today’s aggregation.