42 products were removed from the Top 300 list. With the big shakeup in the rankings, some are happy and some are sad?

Recently, the App Store has started another round of ranking clearing. The paid list, free list, and best-selling list have all experienced significant ranking changes, even affecting many products at the top level. Until the morning of the deadline (November 7), the list was still changing dramatically, but it showed signs of stabilization. Except for a few products, most products with obviously abnormal rankings returned to normal.

The changes in the list have lasted for a full six days since last Tuesday (November 7).

First, in the early morning of November 2, the paid list was cleaned up, and a large number of 1 yuan games disappeared from the list, and previous stand-alone games and buyout games returned to the top of the list. Although this cleanup did not impose restrictions on all domestic 1-yuan games, the chaos of the paid list, which was changed almost every day, has been greatly reduced.

Top 10 rankings before and after the paid rankings change

Then on November 3, the free list also ushered in a new round of cleanup. Looking back at the list, we can find that until November 2, except for the top five on the free list, there have been products that have risen rapidly to more than 1,000 places or directly entered the list. However, on the following day, there was almost no product in the middle of the free list whose ranking fluctuated by more than 100 places.

The ranking of the middle of the free list before and after the change (products named "*****" are no longer available, and the "?" icon may be an icon that has not been captured)

Just after both the free and paid lists were drastically cleaned up, the following November 4th best-selling list was also affected. The changes in the best-selling list are slightly abnormal. Except for products with stable performance or recent popularity such as "Honor of Kings" and "Onmyoji", products of various major manufacturers have been affected to varying degrees. What is more abnormal is that "Fantasy Westward Journey" and "Westward Journey Online", which have always had stable performance, "Swordsman Love" which currently has a stable monthly revenue of around 300 million, and even "Fantasy Zhu Xian" which has just been launched and achieved a DAU of 1 million, have experienced a decline since the early morning of November 4 (later confirmed to be an accidental injury).

Until November 6, the best-selling list returned to normal, and most of the products on the list resumed their rankings, but at the same time, compared with the best-selling list on November 1, we can still find that some products have disappeared from the list. Among these products, most can still be found in the App Store search, while the rest have been directly removed from the shelves.

Comparison of the bestsellers on November 6 (left) and November 1 (right)

During this period, the paid list also returned to chaos, but as of the morning of November 7, the list was cleaned up to a state where the vast majority of them were single-player games with buyouts.

During the six days when the list changed, the App Store removed a total of 19,248 apps, an average of 3,200 apps per day.

In fact, since the beginning of September, Apple has sent emails to inform developers that it will remove outdated apps that no longer run as expected, do not comply with the new review guidelines, and require that the character length of the apps be shortened.

In October, the number of apps removed from the shelves was even higher than during this cleanup period, with more than 30,000 apps removed from the shelves in a single day.

Data from ASO100

It can be seen that not only are outdated and illegal applications removed from the shelves, but this cleanup of the game area also includes algorithm updates and debugging, which shows that Apple very much hopes to completely change the chaos in the game area rankings. Considering that Apple updated the App Store Review Guidelines on September 13, it can be said that this cleanup was intended long ago, and it gave developers some time to make changes.

Looking back at Apple’s adjustments to the App Store rankings since 2012, large-scale ranking changes have occurred after each algorithm change, and this time is no exception.

But it is worth noting that judging from the gradual and multiple changes in the rankings in recent days, the App Store's overall algorithm has been adjusted at least three times this time, distributed in the free, paid, and best-selling lists. At the same time, there have been at least two algorithm adjustments on the best-selling list, so that some products returned to the top of the list before and after the changes.

As the list gradually stabilizes, we can also see which products had problems and were cleared by Apple during this process.

According to ASO 100 statistics, in the past six days, the rankings of many games have dropped by more than 1,400 places and have been directly removed from the list by Apple. These include new products from many large and medium-sized publishers, as well as masterpieces from well-known developers.

Among them, there were even products that were once among the top 3 best-selling products, but were removed from the list in the early morning of November 6.

According to statistics previously released by ASO100, as of 10 a.m. on November 7, a total of 42 products were removed from the Top 300 best-selling list, including 3 from the Top 3.

In addition, we understand that some of the previously top-ranked products were also affected and saw their rankings decline, but the relevant publishers and developers promptly complained to Apple and the relevant products have resumed their rankings today.

From AppAnnie's real-time ranking, it can be seen that products led by "Fantasy Westward Journey" and "Swordsman Love" showed a sharp decline between November 4th and 5th.

From the starkly different performances of the two types of products mentioned above, it can be seen that if solid evidence and relevant data are provided, the products can be restored to normal rankings, while Apple's suppression is still focused on products that do not comply with regulations.

If we combine this with the previously exposed ranking manipulation lists and self-charging phenomena, as well as the ranking change trends in the past quarter, we can see that the products that were cleared from the list this time may have serious ranking manipulation and self-charging behaviors.

Judging from several similar changes in the past, the reason for the change in the App Store rankings this time is most likely the adjustment of the ranking algorithm. The manufacturers whose products were cleared and those who were accidentally hurt may have experienced a lot of different feelings.

But according to past experience, not long after the list changes, the industry will still come up with various ways to make the list return to "normal."

For example, a third-party ranking company may crack the algorithm and continue to manipulate the rankings. For example, after the free list was ruined in the early years, the best-selling list also collapsed. After the 1 yuan price became popular, the paid list also became unsightly.

Another example is the spare tire taking over. After being removed from the list, some manufacturers put another "spare tire" product on the shelves. The name of the product is only slightly different from the product that was removed from the shelves, but the package is basically the same and the content is almost completely unchanged. The most embarrassing thing is that there are similar backup apps that have once again "rushed" into the Top 10 best-selling list. This unstoppable momentum seems to be a silent protest against the App Store.

Of course, many practitioners speculated that this clearing of the list was most likely the App Store paving the way for its own bidding ads, and some practitioners even joked about "waiting for the bidding rankings."

Just at the end of writing, we searched the current list again. Embarrassingly, the chaos of the free list and the paid list has regained its "former glory".

The ranking of the free list (left) and the paid list (right) on the evening of November 7. A large number of apps appeared on the list

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

The author of this article @游戏葡萄 is compiled and published by (APP Top Promotion). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!