Apple Adds A “Top Charts” Section To The Apple TV App Store

Apple has now rolled out a “Top Charts” section on the Apple TV App Store, following the release of the company’s revamped streaming media player which went on sale last week. The TV App Store had only hundreds of titles at the time of launch, but that grew to over 1,000 during the weekend, according to independent third-party reports. However, developers were disappointed to find that the TV App Store had arrived without sections for categories or top charts rankings, as on the iOS App Store, which made app discovery a challenge.

Of course, we knew that the Top Charts section would arrive soon – after all, Apple’s own website shows a TV App Store that includes both this section and categories as part of the user interface. The problem, though, was that the store first needed more activity – both from new users downloading apps, and from developers whose apps will fill out its forthcoming category sections.

With just over 1,000 apps, some categories on the Apple TV App Store simply wouldn’t have more than a few titles in total – and that would make for a poor user experience, Apple likely believed.

Still, developers rely on ranking data to help paint a picture as to what consumers are responding to and which apps are being downloaded the most. And with the Apple TV being an entirely new platform that’s unlike the phone, tablet or even the watch, that data is more critical than ever.

Due to the lack of ranking data, a number of developers and other third parties hacked their own version of the Top Charts this weekend, with the results ranging from static snapshots to live, continually refreshed rankings. According to these sources – which included developer Jonas Boserup’s list of the Top Paid, Free and Grossing apps and Slide to Play’s  own list of Top tvOS apps, including breakdowns by category – the Apple TV App Store was not all that surprisingly filling up with games and other video-related apps.

Apple’s official rankings now confirm those earlier findings, pointing to top paid apps that are largely games, including Galaxy On Fire, Does Not Commute, Lumino City, and Alto’s Adventure. However, the No. 1 Paid app is actually a Plex client at present. (Though not the official app, which just launched today).

Meanwhile, top free apps include video streaming apps like Nat Geo TV, Fox Now, Showtime, History, CBS and others, but the section is currently led by a couple of games, Rayman Adventures and Crossy Road.

Next up for the TV App Store is category pages, which are also arriving soon. As of earlier today, Slide to Play’s publisher Jeff Scott told us that he was seeing 1,025 total apps with games, entertainment, and educational apps seeing the most listings. When the other categories fill out a bit more, their respective category pages should quickly follow, too.

(h/t, image credit: MacRumors)