Keyword Popularity Checker
PopularLook up any keyword’s real App Store popularity score on Apple’s 5–100 scale.
Popularity is Apple’s own 5–100 search volume score, sourced from Apple Search Ads data.
Apple does not publish search volumes for App Store keywords — but it does expose a popularity score through Apple Search Ads, rated on a scale from 5 to 100. That score is the closest thing to ground truth in iOS keyword research: it comes from Apple’s own search data, not third-party estimates. This checker fetches the live score for any keyword in any storefront, so you can separate keywords people genuinely type from keywords that merely sound plausible.
Enter a keyword above to get its current popularity score. Scores are pulled live, so what you see reflects search behavior on the App Store right now — not a stale snapshot from last quarter.
How to check App Store keyword popularity
- 1
Type a keyword or short phrase into the field above.
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Choose the country storefront you want to check — popularity is measured per storefront, and the same keyword can score very differently in the US versus Japan.
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Read the score: 5 is the floor Apple assigns to any recognized keyword, scores in the 20s–40s indicate moderate demand, and anything above 60 is a genuinely high-traffic term.
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Repeat for your candidate list and drop any keyword stuck at 5 — it has effectively no measurable search demand.
What the 5–100 popularity score actually means
The popularity score originates in Apple Search Ads, where Apple rates every keyword’s search traffic on a 5–100 scale to help advertisers plan bids. Crucially, 5 is the minimum — Apple assigns it to every keyword it recognizes, including ones almost nobody searches. That is why a score of 5 should be read as “no meaningful volume”, not “low volume”. Real demand starts showing up around 15–25, and the scale is not linear: the jump in actual searches from 60 to 70 is far larger than the jump from 20 to 30.
Because the score comes from Apple’s own data rather than web-search proxies, it captures App Store-specific behavior. Terms like “offline” or “no wifi” score surprisingly well on the App Store even though they are weak web keywords, while long informational queries that dominate Google barely register — people search stores with short, intent-heavy phrases.
Using popularity scores in a keyword strategy
Popularity alone does not make a keyword worth targeting. A score of 80 is useless to a new app if the results page is owned by apps with millions of ratings. The practical workflow is to shortlist keywords with real demand (roughly 20 and above), then weigh each one against its difficulty — how strong the apps currently ranking for it are. The sweet spot for most apps is the band of mid-popularity keywords the giants have not bothered to optimize for.
Popularity also shifts over time. Seasonal terms (“tax”, “advent calendar”, “fantasy football”) swing dramatically, and new device or OS features regularly mint fresh high-volume keywords. Re-checking your core keyword set every few weeks catches these moves early — and if a keyword you rank well for suddenly gains popularity, that is free traffic you did nothing to earn.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the App Store popularity score come from?
From Apple itself. Apple Search Ads rates every keyword’s search traffic on a 5–100 scale to guide advertisers. This tool surfaces that same score, which makes it Apple’s own measurement of demand rather than a third-party estimate extrapolated from web search data.
Why do so many keywords show a score of 5?
Five is the minimum score Apple assigns to any keyword it recognizes — even ones with essentially zero searches. Treat a 5 as “no measurable demand”. Keywords only start being worth metadata space once they climb to roughly 15–25 or higher.
What counts as a good popularity score?
It depends on your app’s strength. Scores of 20–40 represent solid, reachable demand for most apps; 40–60 is competitive; above 60 is high-traffic territory usually dominated by big incumbents. Rather than chasing the highest numbers, look for the best ratio of popularity to ranking difficulty.
Is the popularity score the same in every country?
No — the score is measured per storefront. “Workout planner” can score 45 in the United States and single digits in Germany, where users search a German phrase instead. Always check popularity in the storefront you are actually optimizing, and use the multi-country checker to compare markets at once.
Does a high popularity score guarantee downloads?
No. Popularity measures how often a term is searched, not whether you can rank for it or convert those searches. A keyword only produces downloads when demand, an achievable ranking position, and a listing that matches the searcher’s intent all line up.
Track popularity for your whole keyword set
Appalize monitors live popularity, difficulty, and your daily rank for hundreds of keywords at once — so you catch demand shifts and ranking drops the day they happen.
Related free tools
Keyword Difficulty Checker
Estimate how hard it is to rank for any App Store keyword before you spend metadata space on it.
Keyword Volume Comparison
Put two or more keywords head-to-head on Apple’s popularity scale and pick the one with real demand.
Multi-Country Keyword Checker
Check one keyword’s popularity across many App Store countries in a single query.
Keyword Rank Checker
Search any keyword like a user would and see exactly where your app ranks in the results.