43% of the visits go to ten apps: what the indie long tail looks like
If you ship an indie app, most of the attention will go to someone else. That is not pessimism, it is what the numbers look like when you count real visits instead of downloads. Everything below comes from one public source, the Indie App Landscape report on Censuus , as it stood on 2026-09-24. It covers the 262 independent apps tracked there, which together recorded 1,884 visits and 863 store…
If you create an independent app, most of the attention will likely be directed towards other applications. This is not pessimistic; it is simply what the numbers reveal when counting actual visits instead of simply downloads. The information presented below is sourced from an official report by Censuus, as of September 24, 2026.
The report tracks 262 independent applications, which together generated 1,884 visits and 863 store taps during the period covered. It is essential to understand that this is a dated snapshot of the data, as the report updates live.
Out of the 262 apps, the ten most popular ones accounted for 43% of all recorded visit traffic. In contrast, the remaining 252 applications shared the rest of the attention. This indicates a steep curve, but it does not represent a winner-takes-all market. Instead, more than half of the attention still goes to applications outside the top ten, highlighting the long tail of indie apps.
What's crucial for makers is the long tail's significance. Most applications fall into this category, with 262 apps and ten taking almost half of the visits. This means that the majority of apps have a small, steady share, which should be viewed as a baseline to build upon rather than a sign of failure. It is essential to understand that visits are not the end goal.
The report also includes the number of store taps, when a visitor goes on to the App Store or Google Play. The ratio of taps to visits can provide insights into whether your page and positioning effectively engage visitors.
The category an app belongs to significantly impacts its performance. For instance, the productivity category has 31 tracked apps and 89 visits, while the food & drink category has 13 apps and 331 visits. The platform on which an app is developed also plays a role. In the snapshot, 235 of the 262 apps are on iOS, with 163 being iOS-only applications.
Additionally, 72 apps are available on both iOS and Android, while 99 are exclusive to Google Play. Most of the tracked makers initially launch on iOS, and a minority choose to go cross-platform from the beginning.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
