Sensor Tower: Referral links are the main source of game downloads in the App Store

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many things, including the sources of game downloads in the App Store. Referral links now play a decisive role, and not a search in the store, as it was before 2020. The analytical company Sensor Tower writes about this in a new report.

The main thing from the report:

• Last year, referral links from other apps accounted for 38% of the installs of all games in the App Store (in other words, we are talking about advertising). Never before have they managed to achieve such results. For comparison: in 2019, clicks on links from applications brought only 31% of downloads, and in 2018 – 26% of downloads;
• search results in the store remained the second most important source of downloads. Games found through search provided 35% of installations in 2020;
• surfing showed a little worse — it accounted for 24% of downloads;
• according to analysts, the trend towards increasing the popularity of referral links has been viewed for a long time, but finally strengthened just a year ago. This was partly due to coronavirus restrictions. The fact is that during the pandemic, many people started playing mobile games for the first time. Beginners did not have time to get used to looking for applications through the App Store search or surfing, but right in the games they saw ads for other games and clicked on it;
• another reason may be that gamers have simply become uninterested in playing games of different genres. They want to play about the same thing, and therefore they have become more dependent on advertising recommendations.