Today’s biggest signals were the simultaneous entry of Castlevania: 40th Anniversary in five markets (JP #2 / US #3 / GB #8 / KR #16 / DE #21, android-game/free) and Kingdom Rush 6: Genesis TD in paid charts (GB #2 / US #2 / KR #4)—a day when cross-market game-driven inflows coincided with 30% turnover in the bottom tier and 93 new sports entries.

1. New Entries

The strongest signal was Castlevania: 40th Anniversary entering five markets on the same day (JP #2 / US #3 / GB #8 / KR #16 / DE #21, android-game/free). In paid charts, Kingdom Rush 6: Genesis TD entered simultaneously at GB #2, US #2, and KR #4; in KR, Frontiers rose to #13 and Vengeance to #12, while Alliance reached US #9 (+26), lifting the entire series. Utility apps also saw cross-market movement from PDF Reader - Viewer, Edit PDF (GB #12 plus five other markets) and NBA: Live Games & Scores (HR #3 plus five other markets). HR was particularly local in character, with BeSoccer at #1 and ImmoScout24 at android-travel-and-local/grossing #1.

2. Sharp Monthly Rises

The reference date is 2026-08-29 (30 days ago, though it is the oldest archived collection date and a full month of history is not yet available). In US android-photography, Momo: AI Photo & Video Maker reached #1 in both free and grossing (+41), while Hailuo AI rose to GB #4 (+41) and DE #5 (+40), and newly entered US at #5 today. The White House reached US news #4 (+36), while BP Health Log hit US health #2 (+35). There were 15 entries in the top 20 that were absent on the reference date, including BMW BERLIN-MARATHON 2026 at DE android-sports/free #1.

3. By Tier

top (1–10) was nearly fixed at held 84% / new 2% / |Δ|1.9; mid (11–30) was 74% / 6% / 4.4; bottom (31–45) was held 53% / new 30% / |Δ|5.6, meaning most churn occurred at the tail. No aggregation of developers occupying top slots was available (—), so market concentration cannot be assessed.

4. By Country

Top-10 retention was strongest in JP at 87%, followed by US 86%, DE 85%, HR 83%, KR 82%, and GB 81%. New inflows were led overwhelmingly by HR with 353 entries (64 charts), followed by US with 275 and KR with 240. Across markets, X was #1 in all six markets, Duolingo was #1 in grossing across all six, and ChatGPT, Canva, and Instagram were top-10 in every market. In contrast, KR’s 강수량 레이더 at weather/grossing #3 and JP’s ウマークル at #3 were unique to single markets.

5. By Category

The fastest-moving categories were android-sports (held 72% / 93 new), android-personalization (70% / 70), android-health-and-fitness (77%), and android-photography (80%). By contrast, android-maps-and-navigation at 91%, android-food-and-drink at 90%, and android-medical at 90% barely moved. Games had 83% retention but still saw 88 new entries, combining stable leaders with inflows at the tail.

Key Findings

1. Castlevania: 40th Anniversary entered android-game/free in five markets on the same day (JP #2, US #3, GB #8)

Rather than appearing in a single chart, it entered five markets simultaneously: JP #2 / US #3 / GB #8 / KR #16 / DE #21. This was the broadest simultaneous inflow in today’s data for a globally launched IP title. Its penetration into the top 2–3 positions in Japan and the United States suggests that the combination of retro IP and an anniversary hook resonated in both markets at once.

Confidence: High

2. Ironhide’s Kingdom Rush series expanded across paid charts (new title GB/US #2, KR #4; older titles rose simultaneously)

Kingdom Rush 6: Genesis TD entered at GB #2, US #2, and KR #4 on the same day. At the same time, Kingdom Rush Frontiers TD reached KR #13 (+31), Kingdom Rush Vengeance newly entered at KR #12, Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance TD reached US #9 (+26), and Alliance newly entered at GB #10. This is a classic example of a new release lifting an entire back-catalog, with the niche paid TD genre moving across multiple markets at once.

Confidence: High

3. AI photo and video generation apps took over Western photography charts (Momo US #1 +41, Hailuo GB #4 +41 / DE #5 +40, Hype AI US #2 new)

Momo: AI Photo & Video Maker reached #1 in both free and grossing in the US (+41). Hailuo AI climbed to GB #4 (+41) and DE #5 (+40), while newly entering the US at #5 today. Hype AI also newly entered at US #2 and reached GB #10 (+31). android-photography had 80% top-10 retention, below the category average, showing new AI entrants displacing incumbents at the top. Its #1 grossing position is evidence that this is not merely a surge in free downloads—it is also converting into revenue.

Confidence: High

4. PDF readers rose repeatedly across tools / productivity (KR tools #1 and #3, GB #8 +30, including entries in five markets at once)

In KR, document.office.pdfreader… reached android-tools/free #1 (absent on the reference date), while office.document.pdfreader… newly entered at #3 today. In GB, PDF Viewer＆Scanner reached #8 (+30), while com.zenstack.pdfreader… entered simultaneously in five markets, led by GB #12 alongside HR/KR/DE/JP. In KR productivity, PDF Reader & Viewer rose to #12 (+30); PDF Reader & Editor reached JP #18 (+26); and PDF Plus newly entered JP business at #11. Multiple packages offering the same function entered side by side, a pattern likely driven by ASO or paid acquisition.

Confidence: Medium

5. android-sports was the most active category (72% top-10 retention, 93 new entries), with clear real-event linkage

Among 35 categories, it had the lowest top-10 retention at 72% and the most new inflows at 93. BMW BERLIN-MARATHON 2026 reached DE #1 (absent on the reference date) and GB #3 (+22), while also entering HR #25 / US #26 / KR #38 on the same day. In GB, The Official England App newly entered at #2; in HR, BeSoccer #1 and Football Live Scores & Alerts #2 were new; and NBA: Live Games & Scores appeared in five markets (HR #3, DE #11, KR #13, US #24, GB #34). With demand closely tied to event calendars, publishers can prepare by working backward from scheduled dates.

Confidence: High

6. Movement is concentrated at the tail: bottom (31–45) had 53% retention and 30% new entries, while top (1–10) had 84% retention and 2% new

top was nearly frozen, with average movement of |Δ|1.9. mid (11–30) had 74% retention / 6% new / |Δ|4.4, while bottom had 53% retention / 30% new / |Δ|5.6. New discoveries occur almost entirely below rank 31, so tracking titles that enter the tail on subsequent days is more cost-effective than trying to win one of the top 10 slots. Developer aggregation for top slots was not output, however, so today’s data cannot determine whether concentration exists.

Confidence: High

7. HR was the market with the most churn (353 new entries / 64 charts), while JP was the most stable (87% top-10 retention)

New inflows were HR 353, US 275, KR 240, DE 239, GB 217, and JP 215. Top-10 retention was JP 87% > US 86% > DE 85% > HR 83% > KR 82% > GB 81%. In HR, new faces also reached the top: BeSoccer #1, ImmoScout24 travel/grossing #1, Launcher OS™ #5, Moj #7, and Bigo Live #8. As a smaller market, rankings can move with relatively few installs. HR is suitable for observing early traction in new titles, while JP is better for confirming sustained adoption.

Confidence: High

8. Only 15 staples were top-10 in all six markets — X and Duolingo (grossing) were #1 everywhere

X was #1 in android-news-and-magazines/free across DE, GB, HR, JP, KR, and US. Duolingo was #1 in grossing in all six markets and #1 in free in five. ChatGPT, Canva, WhatsApp, Instagram, Spotify, Uber, Temu, Tinder, Fever, Expo Go, and Findmykids were also top-10 in multiple markets. Treat these slots as immovable; the opportunities lie below rank 11 in the same category or in market-specific openings.

Confidence: High

9. Personalization (70% retention) and navigation (91% retention) are opposites — room for entry differs nearly twofold by category

android-personalization had the lowest top-10 retention of all categories at 70%, with 70 new entries. Silly Smile Wallpaper reached DE #4 (+38), Neon Love Theme reached HR #8 (+32/+33), Mico newly entered at DE #9, and Projectivy Launcher newly entered DE grossing at #5. By comparison, android-maps-and-navigation at 91%, android-food-and-drink at 90%, and android-medical at 90% were nearly static. Short-cycle initiatives should focus on personalization, sports, and photography, while navigation and medical should be approached as long-term efforts.

Confidence: High

10. Health & fitness had 77% retention, with general workout apps returning simultaneously in four markets

Home Workout - No Equipment entered on the same day at HR #18 / DE #22 / US #25 / GB #30, while Dancefitme appeared at HR #26 / GB #39 / US #39. In GB, parkrun Official reached #6 (+28); Pilates Workout at Home reached HR #17 (+24); BP Health Log reached US #2 (+35); and Walk15 reached HR #1 (absent on the reference date). This provides accessible material for planning around the early autumn rise in exercise demand.

Confidence: Medium

Recommended Actions

• Track Castlevania: 40th Anniversary (JP #2 / US #3 / GB #8 / KR #16 / DE #21) again tomorrow and the following day to see whether it holds in all five markets, or remains only in JP and US while falling in Europe. If it holds, retro-IP anniversary titles deserve promotion as a broader planning theme.
• Paid charts are being moved by Ironhide alone. Treat Kingdom Rush 6’s GB/US #2 and KR #4 alongside the coordinated rises of older titles (Frontiers KR #13, Alliance US #9), and turn it into an article case study of how a new title lifts the back catalog.
• AI photo and video generation (Momo US free/grossing #1, Hailuo GB #4 and DE #5, Hype AI US #2) is one of the few genres reaching grossing charts. Use grossing rank—not free rank—as the primary metric, and continue monitoring US/GB/DE.
• Limit new-discovery operations to the bottom tier (ranks 31–45, 30% new). top has 84% retention and only 2% new, so spending time reviewing it every day is largely wasted.
• Use HR (353 new entries, 64 charts) as the observation market for early traction tests, and JP (87% top-10 retention) for adoption confirmation—a two-stage approach.
• Since DE TOP_GROSSING is missing 24 categories, defer articles that draw conclusions about DE revenue until the next collection, or explicitly state that they cover free charts only.
• Cases such as BMW BERLIN-MARATHON 2026 jumping to DE #1 show the effect of real-event linkage. List major sports and event dates for the next 2–4 weeks in advance and add related apps to a watchlist.
• PDF reader apps simultaneously occupied KR tools #1 and #3, with entries across five markets as well. Separately verify whether this side-by-side entry of different packages with the same function is acquisition-driven; the current data cannot establish this.

Data Quality Notes

The collection covers 351 charts / 13,174 rows on 2026-09-28. Of the configured target of 378 charts (excluding 252 charts the source does not publish), 27 charts were not collected; among recent runs, 6 completed partially and 33 fetches failed. Of the 351 charts, 319 could be compared with the prior day, 2026-09-27. The remaining 32 charts cannot be evaluated for day-over-day changes or new entries. Because rows from charts absent on the previous day are not counted as “new,” the reported new-entry totals may be slightly understated. Degraded sources are heavily concentrated in TOP_GROSSING: DE is entirely missing TOP_GROSSING for 24 categories, many are also missing in US, KR, GB, HR, and JP, and some TOP_PAID charts are missing in US/GB/JP/KR. Conclusions about monetization and paid charts are therefore weaker than conclusions based on free charts. The monthly-comparison reference date of 2026-08-29 is 30 days earlier, but it is the oldest collection date in the archive, so a full month of history is not yet available. Multiple entries share a maximum rise of +41; this is a ceiling caused by the reference-date aggregation range (through rank 45), and actual rises may be larger. In terms of attributes, developer is missing for 80,052 records, ratingCount for 80,052, and rating for 1,506. As a result, this report does not analyze developers by name, such as which developers occupy the leading slots. This is also why “developers holding most slots” is blank at every tier in the tier table.