Sudden drop in number of daily installs on Google Play Store

Yes, that is very true. They are probably getting hit the hardest by this. Yikes.

I hope they're able to revert those results back and fix this mess.

 

This looks like a reset in similar apps, either accidental or by design, and it might be in progress of being repopulated. Gotta take a screenshot today and see if anything changes tomorrow. Hopefully there will be an explanation or a bit info from Google Play side too.

 

Our games are in a higher bracket, so 10-20k users can just be a daily shift, but we currently aren’t seeing any thing drastic percentage wise. May just luck on our part, or bad luck on others. I talked to a few other friend who have big games, and with one exception (the game is tanking... for reasons unrelated to ranking) they haven’t seen anything unusual. Though it is still the weekend here so the picture may different come Monday. About 3 years back week we lost well over a million installs a day for about a week. Turned out to be a logging issue at google. They corrected it by adding the ‘found’ numbers in to the mix a couple of weeks later. (Which just mucked up those numbers too).

Hopefully, if it’s a glitch or change, it’ll be addressed the first part of the week. It’s nice weather and summer here, so lots of folks around here are out of town. Summer in the valley is when things break and fixes take longer.

 

@zombiegorilla - It defo sounds like a mixed bag result as to who was impacted by this change. I defo think it's related to the similar apps function, and unfortunately for developers like us, who heavily relied on that for organic installs were hit the hardest.

Hopefully it IS a glitch, and they do fix it, but I'm concerned that this may have been a purposeful move by google play... I guess we'll find out next week!

If there's one thing I've learned, is that this stuff always seems to happen right before the weekend lol #WHY

 

This is definitely a glitch in the algorithm. A lot of devs are seeing their installs literally drop to 0. I would understand if there would be some adjustments made to the algorithm resulting in mild fluctuations, but when you read devs loosing 70k daily downloads to 0, it is evident something is broken.

I am pretty sure this is going to be fixed soon, the question that remains, however, is - will we be able to reach back to our daily installs number.

 

Yea, zero is broken fer sure. Even with bad listing you should get more than zero. Bots / data mining are going to generate something. I wonder if installs are failing to get recorded? Or worse, failing to download/install. Have any of you checked to see if you can still actually install your app from play?

 

Everything downloads and installs fine. Game rating has not changed, which means there are no angry customers.

 

Thank you so much for starting this thread! We have the same story. Overall accounts was at more than 80k downloads per day. Now it's below 5k and still getting worse day by day. I think we all should contact/appeal google so that they know that it's not just few companies. For first two days the keywords ranking wasn't dropping, now it's dropped to -40 -50 points according to appAnnie. If this stays we'll all have to let go of our teams and shutdown our companies. !!
I just hope none of us have to face that point. Peace!

 

I did this check and this could definitely be the cause, our games are no longer visible in the "Similar" sections of other games and it looks like that section has goten a lot bigger with more games in it.

Hoping that this is a glitch but I'm not so sure about that.

 

If this is some algorithm change and not glitch then I just wonder for what reason have we been...penalized? by this new algorithm. Because since some devs said that all or most of their apps were hit, then it looks like it's about the developer and not the app.

 

It is not about the dev account. I have two apps on the same account. One dropped to almost 0, the other doubled. Bad news is that all my revenue was coming from the app that lost its downloads.

 

Many weeks in the console fun ARPPU 0 $ and a message about the delay in its display.
On the 20th, this problem was resolved and we saw ARPPU = $ 500, which is a clear mistake, after that we began to lose 90% of new installations.

 

Perhaps the reason is that they wanted to "fix" the Similar section and make it more accurate then before, and that's why some of us have lost huge amounts of downloads and some gained.

 

So it seems we are seeing some weird activity and currently investigating (weekend just ended for our EU staff).

 

When you go to Granny horror game and see Knife Hit or Subway Surfers in the Similar section then you know they've failed badly.

 

I sure hope so, and that they'll fix it.

 

Or when your game is zombie shooter and you see a compass app or stickman something or even a national song app in similar section...

 

Hi Guys,
It definitely an algo change and its definitely related to Similar Apps section, we are down to 0.3M from 1.3M daily new installs. So its huge. And yes Top Devs and Top Apps are seen every where in Similar Apps section.
We can wait and nothing else we can do and Google Play does not provide a BD Manager easily so at the end its us who can work together and find a solution to this problem.
Why don't we create a whatsApp group so stay connected?

 

1.3 million new daily installs? You look to be a big fish in the pond. Don't you have a direct contact with Google?

 

Thats the problem, with this much installs Google Play has not assigned us a BD Manager. Google is so biased unfortunately when is comes to Support and BD

 

https://chat.whatsapp.com/ItADG5XRz2D86T4Jam8xfN
Join this group please for quicker communication and notifications.

 

Today a Huge rpm drop on admob too.

 

2000 installs ----> 600 ----> 200

 

I think we all need to write to support, Google should see the mass nature of the problem. We lose good money every day and we will have to lay off employees next month, if the error is not corrected, this is a big problem (

 

I have the same 0.1x ratio on 6 of my games and a 2x on two games.
IMO Google may have changed their algo to feature the most profitable apps over the similar one in the "Similar" category. Sounds like a win-win for them.

 

My most profitable app dropped to almost 0 downloads. The other one that is not making anything, doubled. Doesn't seem to support your theory.

 

> 1.3 million new daily installs
Could you please post link?

 

link to what and why?

 

To your app. Just wondering what can gen 1.3M daily downloads if its not a social net or so.

 

I'm trying to contact Google Play Support using the "?" icon in the developer console, but it keeps loading and I cannot contact them. Anyone contacted Google?

 

I can understand algo changes etc.
But I can't understand how they didn't give a heads up like 6 month before. And even now no comments.
They are behaving like a bunch of amateurs that don't understand that lots of people's lives depend on it. They just fcked everybody without any comments.

 

Yes, I have sent them a message yesterday with the contact form, by using the "?" button.
Also, forum member @j0hka said on the discord meeting that he managed to have a live chat with them and that they're investigating the problem.

 

I also send a mail today, I will post here their answer

 

thats google they dont care as always

 

You are not alone. I noticed a drop too in my downloads.

 

I had no idea why my game got a download boost for the last 2 month after going dormant for almost a year...
and now I have no idea why my game suddenly got a drop in download count...

 

In which category is your game/app that dropped? Mine is Games / Casual

 

Mine is in Games / Simulation

 

It's highly unlikely that these results were intentional and nobody is going to give you heads up for bugs and glitches which might happen in the future.

 

Hi, everybody here, please contact Google through the website below. We should let Google know this problem earlier and fix this error quickly. Otherwise our losses will be even greater.

Now please contact Google together to let them know our loss and protect our rights. Thanks!

1.Open URL https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/#topic=3450769&contact=1
2.In the top right corner, click "contact us";
3.Select "Send feedback";
4.Choose one to send feedback.

 

"Similar games" listings of my games got shaken hard again. Still shows up "wrong" stuff, but something is at least moving. I see way more related games now, but sadly that doesn't mean my games are visible to any other related listings.

 

I messaged google this morning about the issue too, and sent them screenshots.

I even mentioned that some apps that seem inappropriate are showing up in the "similar apps" section that are unrelated to kids games.

I really hope they fix this, otherwise, we are starting over from 0 as a lot of our most viral games with over 5m downloads have bottomed out :/

Best case scenario is that they fix this issue, and revert to what it was before.

Worst case scenario is that this was intentional, we are now stuck with this new algorithm, and pray that our games once again show up in these categories...

 

I spoke with our Admob rep, and he is opening up communicatons with google support on this to see if we can find out what's going on... stay tuned...

 

Me too. I've just received response from my AdMob account manager. She told me that they are aware of this problem, and they are investigating it

 

@pep_dj - WOW that is great news!! Sounds like it was a bug, and they will hopefully revert back to the previous results... fingers, toes, and eyes crossed...

 

If anyone sees any changes, please post here. I'm checking throughout the day, and don't see any updates yet by Google Play.

 

Judging by the work of their services... Google - little indie company)

 

Very sad to read that it happens to a lot of people, but I have to say I am relieved to know it's not just me.. ^^'
I'm not a big player like most of you, but still a drop from 150 installs / day to 8 really hurts!

 

Got a reply from the support email that I sent on Friday:

Hi Vladislav,
Thanks for bringing your request to my attention.

I want to make sure I get you the best answer possible, and I appreciate your patience while I look into your issue. I’ll be sure to reach out to you as soon as I have an update.

Please let me know if you have any questions in the meantime.

Regards,
Grace
Google Play Developer Support

 

has not been fixed yet