The Most Popular App Store Keywords of 2022

by Anthony Ansuncion
App Growth Consultant at AppTweak

September 7, 2022 — 6 min read

What were the most searched terms on the App Store in 2022? We looked at 6 of the largest app markets (United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and India) to find out which keywords reached the highest search volumes this year.

Most popular App Store keywords defined

The most popular keywords are defined as searches that received the highest possible search volume scores at some point in a year. The volume score is a number between 5 and 100, calculated and directly received from Apple. The higher the search volume, the more popular the keyword and the higher the frequency of searches for that term on the App Store.

Top 20 most popular App Store keywords of 2022 (US)

The top 20 most searched keywords on the App Store changed quite a bit from 2021 to 2022. Only 6 keywords that ranked in the top 20 in 2021 still rank in the top 20 in 2022: “instagram,” “snapchat,” “facebook,” “tik tok,” “youtube,” and “messenger.”

On the other hand, some notable keywords that lost their top 20 popularity rankings this year are “mario kart,” “zoom,” “among us,” “disney plus,” and “free games.”

instagram
snapchat
facebook
tik tok
wordle
youtube
twitter
roblox
tinder
truth social
whatsapp
cash app
discord
messenger
netflix
reddit
grindr
spotify
amazon
google

Most popular App Store keywords across countries

The following table shows the 20 most popular keywords with the highest search volumes recorded for the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and India.

United States		United Kingdom		France		Germany		Spain		India
Keyword	Max Volume 2022	Keyword	Max Volume 2022	Keyword	Max Volume 2022	Keyword	Max Volume 2022	Keyword	Max Volume 2022	Keyword	Max Volume 2022
instagram	100	instagram	100	instagram	100	instagram	100	instagram	100	instagram	100
snapchat	98	snapchat	100	snapchat	100	snapchat	98	whatsapp	94	whatsapp	95
facebook	95	facebook	96	facebook	93	whatsapp	96	tik tok	90	bgmi	92
tik tok	93	wordle	96	tik tok	93	corona warn app	94	facebook	89	snapchat	91
wordle	92	tiktok	94	tinder	91	covpass	92	hay day	89	facebook	89
youtube	92	vpn	94	whatsapp	91	tik tok	92	tinder	89	free fire	88
twitter	91	whatsapp	92	youtube	90	facebook	90	telegram	88	youtube	88
roblox	90	youtube	91	clash royale	89	tinder	90	clash royale	86	telegram	86
tinder	90	roblox	90	netflix	89	youtube	90	netflix	86	pubg	85
truth social	90	tinder	90	telegram	89	netflix	88	spotify	86	google pay	84
whatsapp	90	love island	89	capcut	88	spotify	88	youtube	86	paytm	84
cash app	88	twitter	89	sweatcoin	88	lobby	87	salud andalucia	85	vpn	84
discord	88	messenger	88	tous anti covid	88	reddit	86	twitter	84	amazon	83
messenger	88	new profile pic	88	messenger	87	telegram	86	capcut	83	mx player	83
netflix	88	reddit	88	twitter	87	ebay kleinanzeigen	85	amazon	82	netflix	83
reddit	88	vpn free unlimited	88	spotify	86	roblox	85	parchis	82	phone pay	83
grindr	87	grindr	87	subway surfers	85	subway surfer	85	snapchat	82	whatsapp business	82
spotify	87	netflix	87	tiktok	85	amazon	84	zara	82	google	81
amazon	86	nhs	87	uber eats	85	db navigator	84	glovo	81	hotstar	81
google	86	spotify	87	waze	85	luca app	84	gmail	81	zomato	81

Just like in the US, the most popular keyword searches in the other 5 markets changed quite a bit between 2021 and 2022. Compared to 2021, each country has at least 10 new keywords in the top 20 most popular searches.

Generic keywords lost popularity on the App Store in 2022

In previous years, the most searched keywords in each country were typically brand names; this is even more the case in 2022.

In 2021, there were 19 searches for generic keywords across the 6 markets, and each country had at least 1 generic keyword ranking in the top 20. This year, however, we count a total of only 6 generic keyword searches (among the top 20) across the 6 markets. The US, France, and Germany did not have any generic keywords in the top 20. Here is an overview of the top searches for generic keywords across the 6 markets:

USA – no generic searches
UK – 3 searches: “vpn,” “new profile pic,” and “vpn free unlimited”
France – no searches
Germany – no searches
Spain – 1 search: “salud andalucia”
India – 1 search: “vpn”

Expert Tip

The top 20 most popular keywords contain many branded terms. Using competitors’ trademarked keywords in your metadata can be tempting to drive a lot of traffic, but this is not allowed on the App Store (and not recommended to include in your keyword field).

Dating apps dominate the most popular App Store keywords

Compared to last year, the top keywords are dominated by dating apps such as “tinder” and “grindr.” Last year, Bumble (US) was the only dating app that ranked in the top 20 across the 6 markets. This year, 7 dating apps are among the top popular searches, with each country having at least 1 dating app ranking in the top 20.

It is interesting to note that last year there were 6 COVID-related searches ranking as the most popular across the 6 markets, while this year there were only 3. For example, “Tous Anti Covid” (ranked #8 in France in 2021) now is now the 13th most popular search, while Corona Warn App (ranked #1 in Germany in 2021) now ranks #4 on the App Store. This could be due to the global COVID-19 vaccination efforts this year that have altered the trajectory of the pandemic.

A further observation is that “Zoom” did not rank in the top 20 searches for any of the 6 markets this year, while last year it ranked in the top 20 for 4 of the 6 markets. This could be attributed to more employees returning to office environments in a post-pandemic world.

Overall, the top keywords on the App Store continue to be dominated by social media and networking apps, such as ”instagram,” ”twitter,” ”snapchat,” “tiktok,” and “facebook,” much like in the previous year.

Communication & gaming keywords among top searches in 2022

The second and third most popular categories of top searches in 2022 are communication and gaming searches respectively. For communication searches, “WhatsApp” is the most popular search term, ranking in the top 20 for each of the 6 markets. In terms of gaming searches, “Roblox” is the most popular term, ranking in the top 20 for the US, UK, and Germany. Video-related keyword searches are also popular, with “Netflix” and “YouTube” both ranking in the top 20 searches for each of the 6 markets.

Top 500 most popular App Store keywords

Want to unlock more insights? Have a look at the full list of the 500 most popular keywords of 2021 for the past few years:

Top 1000 most popular keywords of 2018 -US-UK-FR-DE-ES

Want to discover the keywords people use when searching for your app or competitors’ apps? Learn more about our App Keyword Research Tools and sign up for a 7-day free trial.

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by Anthony Ansuncion, App Growth Consultant at AppTweak

Anthony is an App Growth Consultant at AppTweak helping apps improve their store presence. He is passionate about sports, movies, video games and has way too many shoes.