Today’s strongest signal is the simultaneous entry of Janitor: Interactive Stories in five markets (books-and-reference free: DE #9 / GB #13 / US #14 / HR #19 / JP #45), while chart movement itself is concentrated almost entirely in the lower tier (ranks 31–45, 56% held and 25% new).

1. New Entries

The strongest signal is Janitor: Interactive Stories launching simultaneously in five markets (android-books-and-reference/free: DE #9, GB #13, US #14, HR #19, JP #45). Next is FotMob - Soccer Live Scores, appearing in five markets in android-android-wear/free (from HR #26 to US #45). In personalization, four wallpaper/lock-screen apps each entered four markets at once, while MD326 3D Modern Watch Face simultaneously claimed #1 in three paid GB charts (android-wear / personalization / watch-face).

2. Sharp Rise Since the Baseline

The baseline date, 2026-08-26, was only 20 days ago and is the oldest archived capture date, so there is not yet a full month of history. This should be read as a comparison over just under three weeks, not as a monthly view. The largest gains were JP Scam Buster Lite at #2 (+40), HR Splitwise grossing #5 (+38), KR 4910 #4 (+37) and lotte.com #6 (+36), and HR TradingView grossing #1 (+36). Fifteen apps were absent on the baseline date but have now reached the top 20, notably games in JP (including Dragon Quest Walk at grossing #1) and the #2 tier in HR.

3. By Tier

top (ranks 1–10) is stable at 85% held, 1% new, and an average movement of 1.9. mid (ranks 11–30) is 75% / 6% / 4.2, and bottom (ranks 31–45) is 56% / 25% / 5.1. Nearly all movement is concentrated in the bottom 15 slots, so turnover at the top can be treated as an exception.

4. By Country

The US is the largest market (90 charts, 327 new entries). HR is fluid, with 285 new entries despite having only 65 charts. KR is the most stable, with 87% held in the top 10, while JP has both the fewest new entries at 218 and 84% held, meaning total turnover is limited. Common names include Duolingo (ranked #1 in education/grossing across all six markets), Canva, Kling AI, and WhatsApp.

5. By Category

Categories with the largest turnover are watch-face (74% held), photography (75%), health-and-fitness (76%), and personalization (77%). game and personalization have the most new entries, with 93 each. By contrast, books-and-reference at 95%, weather at 94%, communication at 93%, and libraries-and-demo at 93% have barely moved.

Key Findings

1. Janitor: Interactive Stories enters books-and-reference free in five markets simultaneously — today’s strongest new-entry signal

It was absent on 2026-09-14, then ranked simultaneously today at DE #9, GB #13, US #14, HR #19, and JP #45. This is not a single-chart appearance but a same-day, multi-market launch; it also suggests an adoption sequence in which the AI interactive-story format is leading in Western markets while remaining lower-ranked in JP. Books and novels are among today’s least volatile categories, with 95% held, making a simultaneous entry into five markets unusually notable.

Confidence: High

2. Wallpaper and lock-screen apps enter personalization across four markets at once; the category is 77% held

Zipper Lock Screen & Wallpaper (HR #11 / DE #21 / GB #33 / JP #41), Wallpaper 3D Live (JP #12 / US #16 / GB #23 / DE #25), Silly Smile Wallpaper & Sound (DE #15 and four other markets), Silly Fun Smile Live Wallpaper (GB #19 and four other markets), and Hole U Can Eat Home App (JP #14 and four other markets) all appeared on the same day. personalization has 93 new entries and 77% held, tying game for the most turnover today. This is a typical mass-produced pattern in which clusters of similarly themed apps enter several markets at once, and it should be distinguished from a standalone hit.

Confidence: High

3. watchfacestudio-series watch faces simultaneously take #1 in three GB paid charts and occupy top US paid positions

MD326 3D Modern Watch Face debuted at #1 in every GB TOP_PAID chart for android-android-wear / android-personalization / android-watch-face. In the US, PER27 Digital Watch Face entered simultaneously at #5 in paid watch-face and #7 in paid android-wear, while PER23 entered at #6 and #8, respectively. Wave: Wear OS watch face also appeared in free charts at DE #5 / GB #5 and rose +32 to #4 in the US. watch-face, at 74% held, has the highest turnover of any category, and a substantial share of that turnover can be explained by supply from the same series.

Confidence: High

4. Soccer and live-score demand rises simultaneously in GB and wear

FotMob entered android-wear free in five markets at HR #26 / DE #30 / KR #38 / JP #39 / US #45. In GB, Live football TV debuted at #6 in sports free, Football Live Score: Soccer rose to #7 (+32), Live Football Scores & Results rose to #13 (+31), and RugbyPass also debuted at #14. sports, at 78% held, is on the more volatile side, indicating demand for viewing-related apps in line with the progression of the European season.

Confidence: High

5. The baseline is 20 days ago — the top gain is JP Scam Buster Lite at +40 (productivity free #2)

The baseline date, 2026-08-26, is the oldest archived capture date and was 20 days before today, so it should not be treated as a true monthly interval. Even so, Scam Buster Lite recorded the largest gain, rising +40 to #2 in productivity free. In JP, LunaSpeak #7 (+25), CHARGESPOT #16 (+25), and Binance #13 (+24, also a new finance entry today) also climbed, spanning personal protection, learning, and payments.

Confidence: High

6. HR finance/grossing sees complete turnover in 20 days — TradingView #1 (+36), Splitwise #5 (+38)

In HR, TradingView climbed +36 to grossing #1, Splitwise climbed +38 to grossing #5, and Finanzguru reached #2 after being absent from the baseline. Splitwise also debuted simultaneously in finance free in three markets: DE #18 / GB #23 / HR #29. This confirms a Europe-wide lift for expense splitting and household-budget management on both the free and monetized sides. HR is a small but highly liquid market, with 285 new entries across 65 charts.

Confidence: High

7. Movement is concentrated in the lower tier: bottom is 56% held and 25% new, while top is 1% new

top (ranks 1–10) is nearly fixed at 85% held, 1% new, and 1.9 average movement; mid (ranks 11–30) is 75% / 6% / 4.2; and bottom (ranks 31–45) is 56% / 25% / 5.1. Most of today’s new entries occurred in slots below rank 31. New entries that broke into the top 10—such as GB’s paid #1 group, JP’s CoeFont Interpreter #2, and KR’s 희담필터 #2—are exceptional in numerical terms. Planning decisions should not assign the same weight to entering the lower tier as to entering the top tier.

Confidence: High

8. By market: US is largest (90 charts, 327 new entries), KR is most stable (87% top-10 held), and JP is quietest (218 new entries)

US: 90 charts / 87 comparable / 327 new / 86% held; GB: 75 / 66 / 275 / 85%; HR: 65 / 59 / 285 / 85%; KR: 72 / 67 / 236 / 87%; JP: 74 / 70 / 218 / 84%; DE: 64 / 60 / 271 / 85%. KR has the least turnover and the strongest retention of incumbents. JP has the fewest new entries, but its 84% top-10 held rate is also the lowest, indicating modest turnover near the top. US and HR are the markets to target for the absolute volume of new entries; KR is the market to target for sustained top placement.

Confidence: High

9. Global staples in the top 10 across all six markets include Duolingo, Canva, and Kling AI — room for entry is narrow

Duolingo is #1 in education grossing across DE/GB/HR/JP/KR/US, and #1 in free charts across five markets. Canva is #1 in art-and-design in both free and paid charts across five markets. Kling AI is #1 in paid charts in KR and #2 in the other five markets. WhatsApp is #1 in four markets in communication and android-wear. The leaders in these categories did not move today, so new projects are more realistically aimed at the middle tier of those categories or at higher-turnover categories such as watch-face, photography, and personalization.

Confidence: High

10. Category temperature gap: game and personalization have 93 new entries each, while over 90% of weather and books charts are unchanged

New-entry counts are highest for game (93), personalization (93), maps-and-navigation (70), and tools (69). Conversely, high held rates are seen in books-and-reference (95%), weather (94%), communication (93%), libraries-and-demo (93%), business (92%), and productivity (92%), which barely moved. The most volatile categories are watch-face (74%), photography (75%), health-and-fitness (76%), personalization (77%), beauty (78%), news-and-magazines (78%), and sports (78%). In health, Lose Weight App for Men #18 in the US and Weight Loss for Women #19 entered simultaneously in three markets each.

Confidence: High

11. KR shopping leaders turn over in 20 days — 4910 #4 (+37), lotte.com #6 (+36)

In KR shopping free, 4910 / 패션이 쉬워지는 순간 rose +37 to #4, and lotte.com rose +36 to #6. KR has the most stable top tier of all markets, with 87% top-10 held, making these two changes particularly likely to reflect a shift in real demand. KR also saw simultaneous growth in social apps (소상공간 #7 +26, Berriz #13 +26) and finance app Alipay #18 (+24).

Confidence: Medium

Recommended Actions

• Set Janitor: Interactive Stories’ simultaneous entry in five markets (DE #9 / GB #13 / US #14 / HR #19 / JP #45) as the highest-priority tracking target. Check daily whether its rank continues to move in the same category and whether JP #45 rises. It is reasonable to begin an explainer feature on AI interactive stories today.
• In response to MD326 simultaneously reaching #1 in three GB paid charts and PER27/PER23 reaching the upper US paid ranks, treat watch faces / Wear OS as a standalone theme. watch-face has the highest turnover at 74% held, and its short content shelf life favors a breaking-news format for articles and videos.
• Cover the mass-produced personalization cluster—five wallpaper and lock-screen apps including Zipper, Wallpaper 3D Live, and the Silly Smile series entering three to four markets on the same day—as an “influx of a mass-production cluster,” rather than individual app spotlights, to avoid confusing it with standalone hits.
• Bundle GB’s soccer apps (Live football TV debuting at #6, two live-score apps rising +32/+31) with FotMob’s simultaneous entry in wear charts across five markets to create a European season-linked viewing-app feature.
• Explicitly state in the body that the comparison baseline, 2026-08-26, is 20 days ago, and avoid calling it “monthly.” Keep the same note until around 2026-09-26, when a full month of history becomes available.
• Because DE TOP_GROSSING overall and GB TOP_GROSSING/TOP_PAID are degraded, treat conclusions about monetized charts as provisional. Retry collection and isolate the cause of the 36 failed fetches before the next run.
• With 97,807 developer values missing, developer-level concentration analysis cannot yet be produced. Until an attribute-enrichment pipeline is in place, do not include claims based on developer names in reports.

Data Quality Notes

The collection covers 440 charts and 16,329 rows for 2026-09-15. Of 477 target charts (the configured total excluding 153 whose sources were not yet published), 37 were not collected; six recent runs partially completed, and 36 fetches failed. Of the 440 charts, 409 could be compared with 2026-09-14. The remaining 31 lack a prior-day capture, so it is not possible to determine whether they are new entries (rows in charts without prior-day data were not counted as new). Sources reported as degraded are concentrated in TOP_GROSSING / TOP_PAID: in particular, DE TOP_GROSSING covers nearly all categories, GB affects both TOP_GROSSING and TOP_PAID, and multiple categories in KR, JP, US, and HR are also affected. Therefore, new entries and rank changes in monetized and paid charts may appear lower than they actually are. For attributes, developer is missing in 97,807 records, ratingCount in 97,807, and rating in 5,874; this is why developer names are blank in this report. The “developers holding most slots” field in the tier-level aggregation is also blank, so this data cannot determine whether a small number of developers dominate top positions (the watch-face observation is only an inference from package-name commonality). Finally, the baseline date of 2026-08-26 is 20 days before today, is the oldest archived capture date, and does not yet provide a full month of history.