App Store - new releases list?

Hi,

Some years ago, when releasing an app, you had to be very careful with the dates in order to make the new releases lists.

Since iOS6 the app store changed, and I was under the impression that the release date trick was no longer needed.

However, we just soft launched an app in Canada yesterday, but our app is not visible in the "new" lists of the categories it's in. Obviously it's not getting a lot of downloads, because you have to search by name or click a link to find it.
We wanted our soft launch to be relatively quiet because we want to slowly expand in order to see if our back-end is up to the task. However, it's a little bit too slow

Are the lists now moderated (kind of like "new and noteworthy" used to be)? Does it take a while to show up? I can't find any current information on how this works, so I was hoping someone could share their experience.

Thanks!

 

If you are well known company (with games that people want to play) or you have licensed well known IP, then you might be able to soft launch without user acquisition. Otherwise it is quite hard since markets are so oversaturated that most games don't get enough players for them.

 

Indeed. I recall 2011 uploading my first app and it just got itself around. Without marketing. Try that now... it's impossible. Can't even find your own app, if you don't know the exact name. And even then it's sometimes 200 rows down the list.

The oversaturation made it all farce and unfair competition. With buyable reviews, app spammer companies, armies of cloned games... messed up, really. It's not only about the quality of apps anymore, people just find nothing in the swamp.

Same with marketing companies. Like a jungle with lots of dishonesty and fakery. When you realize how ridiculous everything has become you'll shake your head. The curse of capitalism.