Indian apps (PhonePe #1, Airtel #2, Paytm #3, Astrotalk #2, Rapido #2) simultaneously made new appearances on Croatia's (HR) free charts, making it the most volatile day across the six markets, with 470 new entries and 78% top-10 retention. At the same time, 20 apps, including Video Downloader and Chat AI, appeared across multiple countries on the same day, while 31% of the lower tier (ranks 31–45) consisted of new faces.

1. New Entries

The biggest event was HR. Indian-market apps entered at the top of multiple charts: PhonePe #1, Airtel #2, and Paytm #3 in android-finance/free; Astrotalk #2, Sanatan #4, and AstroSage #6 in android-lifestyle/free; and Rapido #2 and inDrive #3 in android-maps-and-navigation/free. This was not limited to a single category: it spread simultaneously across finance, lifestyle, maps, photography, and health, making it qualitatively different from ordinary ranking fluctuations.
Apps appearing in multiple countries on the same day included Video Downloader, Save Videos in grossing at DE #13 / JP #18 / KR #28 / HR #45; Music Player & MP3 Player at HR #13 / US #26 / GB #37 / JP #44; and Chat AI: Ask Agent Anything at US #20 / DE #23 / GB #23 / KR #45. Gemini Notebook (JP #30 / KR #41 / HR #45) followed the same pattern.

2. Sharp Monthly Increases

Note that the baseline date, 2026-08-26, was only 11 days ago, so this does not yet represent a full month. The biggest gains were Splitwise #5 (+38) and TradingView #1 (+36) in HR finance/grossing, Pixel Tamerz #5 (+38) in KR game/free, House Cleaning: ASMR Makeover #9 (+36) in HR game/free, and Berriz #9 (+30) in KR social/free. Apps absent from the baseline that entered the top 20 this time included Clash of Critters #1 in KR game/free and PhonePe #1 in HR finance/free.

3. By Tier

top (ranks 1–10, 3,986 slots) was stable, with 85% held, 1% new, and an average movement of 1.6. mid (ranks 11–30, 7,178 slots) had 75% held and |Δ| of 4.5. bottom (ranks 31–45, 5,144 slots) had 52% held, 31% new, and |Δ| of 5.3, with nearly all of today's new faces concentrated in the lower tier. The developer field is blank, so it is not possible to determine which developers dominate the top ranks.

4. By Country

HR saw the most movement, with 470 new entries and 78% top-10 retention; the other five markets were stable at 85–87% (DE 87%, GB 85%, JP 87%, KR 87%, US 87%). The common names were Canva, X, and Duolingo (grossing), all top-10 in every one of the six markets. Local titles included immowelt #8 in DE, Play Zera #5 in GB, スマスロ とある魔術の禁書目録2 #3 in JP, 소년가행 #6 in KR, and Life Counter - PalworldTCG #4 in the US.

5. By Category

The most churned categories were dating, lifestyle, and news-and-magazines (each with 79% top-10 retention), followed by finance at 80%, health-and-fitness at 80%, and watch-face at 80%. The most stable were art-and-design at 92%, and auto-and-vehicles / books-and-reference / business / libraries-and-demo / video-players at 91%. The highest numbers of new entries were in education (85), finance (80), lifestyle (79), health-and-fitness (78), and personalization (78).

Key Findings

1. Indian apps simultaneously enter the top ranks of HR free charts across finance, lifestyle, maps, photography, and health

PhonePe #1, Airtel #2, Paytm #3, YONO SBI #4, DANA #6, and bKash #8 newly appeared in HR's android-finance/free chart. On the same day, Astrotalk #2, Sanatan App #4, and AstroSage Kundli #6 appeared in android-lifestyle/free; Rapido #2, inDrive #3, and Phone GPS Tracker #5 in android-maps-and-navigation/free; GPS Map Camera #3 in android-photography/free; and Sweatcoin #3 in android-health-and-fitness/free. With 470 new entries and 78% top-10 retention, HR experienced the most turnover among the six markets. This should be read not as isolated hits but as a change in chart composition itself. From a production perspective, there may be room to treat HR not simply as one European market, but as an exposure surface for Indian utility and astrology apps.

Confidence: High

2. Video downloader and MP3 player apps appear across four markets on the same day — a coordinated utility-app push

Video Downloader, Save Videos appeared on the same day in android-video-players/grossing at DE #13, JP #18, KR #28, and HR #45. Music Player & MP3 Player appeared in android-music-and-audio/free at HR #13, US #26, GB #37, and JP #44, while Offline Music Player: Play MP3 appeared at HR #12, US #30, and GB #35. The combination of the same category, same day, and multiple countries is an earlier-stage signal than a hit in a single market. In particular, Video Downloader appeared on the grossing rather than free side, making active monetization funnels likely.

Confidence: High

3. New AI assistant and AI learning apps are distributed across four markets (Chat AI, Gemini Notebook, Linguza)

Chat AI: Ask Agent Anything appeared in android-productivity/free at US #20, DE #23, GB #23, and KR #45, while Gemini Notebook appeared at JP #30, KR #41, and HR #45 on the same day. On the education side, Linguza: AI English Tutor #4 and Supernova AI: Spoken English #9 newly appeared in HR; LingQuiz: AI Language Learning was #16 in KR (+23 from the baseline), and Fluzy was #8 in HR (+22). AI × learning appears in both new entries and 11-day gains, suggesting a broader growth trend rather than a one-off appearance.

Confidence: High

4. New personalization apps (wallpapers, icons, launchers) are concentrated in the lower tier

X Icon Changer appeared in android-personalization/free at HR #37, DE #41, JP #43, and KR #44; Pillow Chase Home App at GB #30, JP #32, and HR #34; Wallpaper 4K HD – Wallcraft at HR #33, DE #42, and GB #42; Launcher OS™ at US #32, GB #33, and DE #40; and Broken Screen: Magic Wallpaper at HR #36, JP #37, and US #40. All were ranked in the 30s or lower, making them typical examples of the bottom tier's 31% new-entry rate. Category-wide top-10 retention was 86%, so the top remains stable: entering is relatively easy, but reaching the top is a separate challenge.

Confidence: High

5. The baseline date of 2026-08-26 was 11 days ago — interpret this as short-term growth, not monthly movement

The baseline is the oldest archived collection date, 11 days before today. Therefore, Splitwise HR #5 (+38), TradingView HR #1 (+36), Pixel Tamerz KR #5 (+38), House Cleaning: ASMR Makeover HR #9 (+36), and Berriz KR #9 (+30) each reflect movement over 11 days. Presenting them externally as monthly trends would overstate the result. What is certain is that the top ranks in HR finance/grossing (TradingView #1, Investing.com #2, Finanzguru #3, Splitwise #5, Kraken #7) have undergone near-complete turnover in this short period.

Confidence: High

6. The head is rigid while the tail is fluid — top tier: 85% held / 1% new; bottom tier: 52% held / 31% new

top (ranks 1–10, 3,986 slots) had 85% held, 1% new, and an average movement of 1.6, leaving almost no room for new entrants today. mid (ranks 11–30, 7,178 slots) had 75% held, 4% new, and |Δ| of 4.5; bottom (ranks 31–45, 5,144 slots) had 52% held, 31% new, and |Δ| of 5.3. New entries occur almost exclusively below rank 31, so strategies targeting top-10 positions should be designed separately from those targeting visibility below rank 31. Since the developer field is blank across all tiers, today's data cannot determine whether specific developers dominate the top slots.

Confidence: High

7. Canva, X, and Duolingo (grossing) are global fixtures in the top 10 across all six markets — opportunity lies in the remaining slots

Canva (art-and-design/free, #1 in DE/GB/HR/JP/KR/US), X (news-and-magazines/free, #1 in all six markets), and Duolingo (education/grossing, #1 in all six markets) were fully synchronized. WhatsApp (#1 in communication/free in DE/GB/HR/US, #5 in KR, #9 in JP), Tinder (#1 in dating/free in DE/HR/KR/US), and Spotify (#1 in music/free in GB/HR/JP/KR) also followed this pattern. Assuming that #1 in these categories will not move, it is more realistic to target openings below #2 or local-specific categories.

Confidence: High

8. Fast-moving categories are dating, lifestyle, and news (79% top-10 retention); art-and-design is stagnant (92%)

In ascending order of top-10 retention: dating 79% (54 new), lifestyle 79% (79 new), news-and-magazines 79% (43 new), finance 80% (80 new), health-and-fitness 80% (78 new), and watch-face 80%. Conversely, art-and-design stood at 92%, while auto-and-vehicles, books-and-reference, business, libraries-and-demo, and video-players were at 91%, showing little top-rank movement. Dating has a strong local character, with Ting, 오케이팅, and 사랑캠 newly appearing in KR, while turnover in lifestyle and finance overlaps with HR's changing composition. If targeting new-entry slots, dating / lifestyle / health-and-fitness are currently the easiest categories to enter.

Confidence: Medium

9. The US is a market where tool utilities rise quickly (VPNs, cleaners, remotes)

In US android-tools/free, Smart Remote #10 (+27), VPN - Super Unlimited Proxy #17 (+26), CleanBoost #14 (+24), and QR & Barcode Scanner #13 (+23) rose from the previous reading; Tera VPN #15 and JumpJumpVPN #16 also made new appearances. android-tools itself is relatively fast-moving, with 72 new entries and 81% top-10 retention. Generic utilities turn over daily in the US, so similar concepts should be operated with the expectation of a short lifespan.

Confidence: Medium

10. JP and KR have local titles in the top ranks — they are not targets for global horizontal expansion

In JP, スマスロ とある魔術の禁書目録2 #3 newly appeared in android-game/paid; in grossing, SDガンダム ジージェネレーション エターナル #6 (+25 from the baseline), HotShort #11 (+23) in entertainment/free, and Rakuten TV #14 (+24) in video-players/free also rose. In KR, 소년가행: 강호의 시작 #6 newly appeared in android-game/free, while Clash of Critters #1, 로그W #2, and Bunker TapTap Defense #3 entered the top 20 from being absent on the baseline date. Top rankings in these two markets are strongly dependent on local titles and cannot be inferred from concepts in other markets.

Confidence: High

Recommended Actions

• Split HR out as a standalone tracking target. Check whether PhonePe / Paytm / Airtel / Astrotalk / Rapido remain tomorrow; if they do, treat this as a lasting change in chart composition, and if they disappear, as a one-day anomaly. Until a determination is possible, do not blend HR figures into the European average.
• Keep the four apps appearing in multiple countries on the same day (Video Downloader, Save Videos / Music Player & MP3 Player / Chat AI: Ask Agent Anything / X Icon Changer) on a fixed watchlist for the next three days, and distinguish temporary pushes from real demand based on whether their rankings hold or sink lower.
• If targeting the tier below rank 31 (52% held, 31% new), assume entry is easy but retention is difficult; conversely, do not target the top 10 (85% held, 1% new), which is entrenched by existing titles. Prioritize the fast-moving dating / lifestyle / health-and-fitness categories.
• Treat AI learning and AI assistants (Chat AI, Gemini Notebook, Linguza, LingQuiz, Fluzy) as one theme and track ranking movements across US/DE/GB/KR/HR. It is the only theme currently appearing in both new entries and 11-day gains.
• Prioritize fixing TOP_PAID / TOP_GROSSING collection failures (in nearly all categories for DE, GB, and HR). Without revenue-side data, monetization-funnel movements cannot be assessed, and observations such as today's Video Downloader grossing appearance cannot be validated.
• Explore collection paths to fill missing developer and ratingCount data (98,515 records each). Until these are filled, questions about developers monopolizing top positions and the relationship between review counts and rankings will remain unanswered.

Data Quality Notes

Collection covered 440 charts / 16,308 rows. Of the planned 475 charts in the configuration (excluding 155 that the source does not publish), 35 charts were not collected. Of the 440 charts, 410 could be compared with the previous day, 2026-09-05; the remaining 30 lack prior data, so they are not “unchanged” but “not comparable,” and rows in them must not be interpreted as new entries. Relative to the baseline date of 2026-09-06, 2026-08-26 was 11 days earlier and is the oldest archived collection date. There is not yet a full month of history, so every reference to “monthly” in this report refers to movement over 11 days. Of recent runs, six completed partially and 32 fetches failed. The degraded sources are heavily concentrated in TOP_PAID and TOP_GROSSING, affecting nearly all paid/revenue charts in DE, GB, and HR (for example, DE art-and-design/TOP_PAID, GB game/TOP_GROSSING, and HR finance/TOP_GROSSING). Therefore, revenue-side figures such as TradingView #1 and Splitwise #5 in HR finance/grossing should be treated with one level less confidence than findings from free charts. Attribute gaps are also substantial: developer is missing in 98,515 records, ratingCount in 98,515, and rating in 6,186. As a result, “developers holding most slots” is blank in every tier of the tier table, and today's data cannot answer whether certain developers monopolize top slots.