[Infographic] Mobile Games App Icon Trends

Out of curiosity, we had a look at the icons of the Top 50 games on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store to see if we could identify major trends among each game category. Here’s a summary of our analysis for the top 10 categories with the most pronounced trends.

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If you have a mobile game, or if you’re about to launch one, make sure to closely analyze the other games’ icons in the same category. The game icon can highly influence your conversion rate, so you want to make sure it is fully optimized. A popular game’s icon is probably the result of numerous iterations and tests, therefore, there are definitely some good practices to learn from.

4 tips to Increase your Game’s Conversion Rate

Game - Arcade

Android

IOS

Main Figures	Geometrical forms
Main Colors	Bright Primary colors
Text	None
Style	Cartoon

Game - Board

Android

IOS

Main Figures	Dices and Dominoes on Android, mixed on IOS (higher presence of puzzles and word games)
Main Colors	Black and White (especially on Android)
Text	The name of the game is often highlighted
Style	Retro

Game - Card

Android

IOS

Main Figures	Cards and only cards on Android A mix of cards and slots on IOS
Main Colors	Dominance of green on Android Half green (card games) and half purple (slots games) on IOS
Text	The Ace symbol is very present
Style	Classic Solitaire

Game - Casino

Android

IOS

Main Figures	Figures are overrun by text
Main Colors	Purple and Gold
Text	Nearly all icons have huge shiny text
Style	Bling Bling

Game - Music

Android

IOS

Main Figures	High presence of piano tile
Main Colors	Purple (or fades of pink and blue)
Text	Low presence
Style	Galaxy

Game - Racing

Android

App icons of Top 50 mobile games in the US Play Store Game - Music Category

IOS

Main Figures	Cars, cars & cars!
Main Colors	Majority of red cars
Text	Low presence
Style	Realistic vs. Cartoon

Game - Role Playing

Android

IOS

Main Figures	Characters and people
Main Colors	Two main genres: either light pink or obscure colors
Text	Low presence
Style	Manga vs. Heroic Fantasy

Game - Sports

Android

IOS

Main Figures	Balls in movement
Main Colors	Ligh green and blue
Text	Low presence
Style	Cartoon vs. Realistic

Game - Strategy

Android

IOS

Main Figures	Close up on angry warrior faces
Main Colors	Dark colors
Text	Low presence
Style	Fantasy

Game - Word

Android

IOS

Main Figures	Words and letters
Main Colors	Diverse
Text	The word "WORD" is everywhere (!)
Style	Scrabble

Fine-tuning your game’s app store profile

As a result of this anaylsis, we found that the trends were more pronounced on Google than on Apple. This is mainly due to the fact that, on Google, games can only choose one category to list in, whereas, on Apple, they can be listed in several categories at once. Nevertheless, several trends in each category emerge, whether on the icon or the keywords used in the games’ metadata. Make sure you take this into account when working on optimizing your mobile game.

Discover games’ top colors and keywords per category

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