THE VERDICT · SUPPORTED IN THIS SAMPLE
Yes. A US list missed many local leaders.
When I compared the US with Brazil and the UK, a list of the top 20 US apps missed most of each local market’s top 20 free apps, on average, in both stores. The same pattern appeared in a later set of dates I kept aside for checking.
That is a finding about these charts and dates. It does not mean the same percentage will apply to every country or app category.
See what I found ↓
THE IDEA
Why did I test this?
If I want to grow an app in Brazil, should I study only the apps that lead the US chart? It sounds convenient. But convenience is not the same thing as a useful competitor list.
I wanted to know how many local chart leaders I would miss by starting with the US alone.
I looked at the top 20 free apps in Brazil and the UK.
I looked for the same app identities in the US top 20 and top 100.
I checked the result again on later dates in each store.
An app missing from a US chart may still be available in the US. This comparison only checks chart positions.
MY THEORY VS THE RESULT
My US shortlist left a lot out.
My theory
More than half of the local top 20 would be missing from the US top 20, on average.
What I found
That happened in both stores across the Brazil and UK comparisons, including the later dates I reserved for checking.
local leaders → check US top 20
Dark squares show the approximate number found out of 20 local leaders. Averages for Brazil and the UK in the later checking period, not every market or day.
See the original result chart
Average for Brazil and the UK in the later checking period.
Think of it this way: the US top 20 showed me roughly 7 of 20 local leaders on the App Store and roughly 6 of 20 on Google Play. These are rounded averages, not the result for every day.
I also looked further down the US chart. Even the US top 100 still missed 41.7% of those local App Store leaders and 49.8% of Google Play leaders in the later checking period. A longer US list helped, but it did not show me the whole local picture.
REAL APPS · ONE UK SNAPSHOT
Which apps would I have missed?
I checked a separate pair of official Apple charts captured in 2026. On that date, these apps were in the UK top 20 but not in the US top 100:
UK RANK 1
ASDA
The supermarket app led the UK chart in this snapshot, but did not appear in the US top 100.
UK RANK 2
GOV.UK One Login
A UK government service app was another local leader outside that US list.
UK RANK 5
Lloyds Mobile Banking
The banking app appeared in the UK top 20 but was absent from the US top 100.
UK RANK 13
Octopus Energy
The energy app was also a local leader outside the US top 100.
In that single UK snapshot, 7 of the UK top 20 were absent from the US top 100. Exactly half of the UK top 20 was absent from the US top 20. This is one date, not a guarantee about today. These apps are examples from the data, not claims of client relationships.
- 20 UK leadersThe local apps I wanted to understand.
- 10 found in US top 20Exactly half appeared in the shorter US list.
- 13 found in US top 100The longer list found three more, but still missed seven.
A SEPARATE LOOK AT INDIA
Checking more US apps did not solve everything.
I also looked at India’s Google Play chart in a separate analysis. Across 36 paired dates, the US top 20 contained an average of 4.56 of India’s top 20. Expanding the US list to 100 found an average of 5.50.
In other words, I looked at 80 more US apps and found fewer than one additional Indian leader on average. The charts in this extra analysis were captured further apart in time than in my main test, so I treat it as a useful clue rather than the same strength of evidence.
MY ASO TAKEAWAY
Research the market you actually want to enter.
My ASO tip: Start with charts and search results in the country you are targeting. A familiar US app may not be the most useful comparison for a local audience.
My ASO strategy: Build a competitor list for each country, then inspect local positioning, screenshots, language, pricing and relevant search terms. Check whether the apps serve the same audience and need as yours.
My ASO warning: Chart leaders are a starting point, not proof that two apps compete for the same keyword. This study did not measure keyword rankings, installs or whether localization improves conversion.
WHAT I COULD NOT PROVE
Here is where the evidence stops.
- Not every market: My tightly timed main comparison covered Brazil and the UK, not the whole world.
- Not every day: I looked at a limited period in 2026. Rankings change.
- Not search results: These are free app charts, not rankings for a specific keyword.
- Not a reason why: Local services, availability, language and promotions could all contribute. I did not separate their effects.
- Not a count of brands: I matched store app identities, so separate listings from one company could count separately.
SOURCES & METHODS
Want to check my work?
I used AppOrbit’s archived charts and checked a separate pair of UK and US Apple charts. Those links show current feeds, which will change; the saved snapshots were captured in 2026.
I reran the supplied verification script. It checked 549 eligible chart comparisons against the saved app identities and reproduced the main average calculations. That checks the arithmetic, not the original archive’s accuracy.
Regional differences in app popularity were already studied by others, including Wang and colleagues. I am not claiming to have discovered them first.
Read the original report and technical details
ASO research · Study 02 · 26 October 2026 · Easy-read edition
ASO research: are you looking at the right apps?
Our theory: if you only research popular US apps, you can miss many of the apps that are popular in the country you want to target.
We tested this using app charts. The results support the theory in the markets and dates we studied.
Why this matters for ASO
App store optimization, or ASO, involves improving how people find and understand your app in an app store.
Researching other apps gives you examples to examine: their app names, descriptions, screenshots and the benefits they promote.
But your starting list matters. If you only study US apps while targeting another country, you may overlook important local apps before your ASO research even begins.
A longer list of US apps does not necessarily give you a better understanding of another country's app market.
India makes the problem easy to see
Imagine you are doing ASO research for an app targeting India. You use the US charts to decide which apps to study.
We checked how many of India's top 20 Google Play apps you would find in those US lists:
| US apps you research | Indian top-20 apps you find |
|---|---|
| The top 20 US apps | About 5 out of 20 |
| The top 100 US apps | About 6 out of 20 |
You looked through five times as many US apps, but found barely any additional Indian leaders.
Even the US top 100 missed 72.5% of India's top 20 apps.
These are averages from 36 paired dates. The exact averages were 4.56 apps found using the US top 20 and 5.50 using the US top 100. The charts were captured no more than 12 hours apart.
It happened in other countries too
This table shows how much of each country's top 20 was missing from the US top 100 on Google Play.
| Country you want to understand | Local leaders your US list misses |
|---|---|
| Vietnam | 74% |
| India | 73% |
| South Korea | 67% |
| Indonesia | 66% |
| Japan | 63% |
| Brazil | 57% |
| Germany | 47% |
| United Kingdom | 43% |
Percentages are rounded averages across 30 to 37 paired dates per market. This wider comparison allowed up to 12 hours between captures.
A real example from UK apps
In a separate check of Apple's charts on 26 October, these apps were popular in the UK but absent from the US top 100:
- ASDA: #1 in the UK.
- GOV.UK One Login: #2 in the UK.
- Lloyds Mobile Banking: #5 in the UK.
- InPost UK: #11 in the UK.
- Octopus Energy: #13 in the UK.
For an ASO researcher studying UK shopping apps, ASDA is a relevant local example to examine. For UK banking apps, Lloyds is another. A research list drawn only from the US chart would miss both.
This does not mean every popular app is your direct competitor. You still need to look at apps that serve similar customers and needs.
Was this just one unusual day?
We checked a separate, later set of dates for Brazil and the UK. For this stricter comparison, the charts were captured within six hours of each other.
The US top 20 still missed approximately:
- 65% of local leaders on Apple.
- 72% of local leaders on Google Play.
More than half of the local leaders were missing in 62 of 63 comparisons on those later dates.
So the pattern was not limited to one day. It was not universal every day either: in our separate UK Apple check on 26 October, exactly half of the UK top 20 was missing from the US top 20.
What this means for your ASO research
The country you choose for research affects which apps you see. Looking at more US apps cannot reliably make up for leaving local apps out.
That matters when building the list of apps whose titles, descriptions, features and screenshots you want to examine. Local apps can provide examples that a US-only shortlist misses.
The finding supports checking the target country's app charts when building an ASO research list. It does not prove that copying a local app's keywords or screenshots will increase downloads.
What we actually measured
We compared app IDs in popular-app charts. We asked a simple question: how many of this country's leading apps also appear in the US list?
- The source archive spans 19 September to 26 October 2026.
- The stricter test covered Brazil and the UK relative to the US.
- The wider comparison covered nine non-US Apple markets and eight non-US Google Play markets.
- These are app charts, not search results for individual keywords.
Regional differences in app popularity are already known. This study measures how many local leaders a US-only list misses, and how little extra coverage a much longer US list sometimes provides.
Data and full study.
Chart archive: AppOrbit, pinned source version. The separate UK check used Apple's public chart feeds.
Keep exploring
All ASO experiments · Research competitors · Find local keywords · Choose markets to prioritize