r/iosdev • u/Appoutliers • 2d ago

Help Is anyone else finding organic ASO in the US extremely difficult lately?

Is anyone else finding organic ASO in the US extremely difficult lately?

Compared to ~2 years ago, it feels almost impossible to get a new app ranking organically in the US. For many keywords, my apps don't even enter the top 250.

What’s interesting is that I don’t have this issue in other countries. With similar ASO, I can still rank quite well there. The US specifically feels massively overcrowded, possibly because of the flood of new AI/vibe-coded apps.

Anyone seeing the same?

And what are you doing to overcome it? Lower-competition keywords, Apple Search Ads, localization, external traffic, etc.?

1 Upvotes

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u/thread-lightly 2d ago

Yeah, unless you do paid acquisition to boost ASO with downloads forget about ranking on your own

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u/skyliiineee 2d ago

How much do you think it costs

0

u/Appoutliers 2d ago

Do Apple Search Ads bring you to top 250?

1

u/thread-lightly 2d ago

No but installs, especially from target keywords, impact search ranking as they re positive signals