Here's a list of the top 101 Apps in terms of user growth for the past month - from June 21 through July 22. Only includes Apps which had users at the start of the period and have at least 1000 users at the end of the period.
(get the full screen view here)
So, this list is a bit flawed, perhaps... as apps like Carbon Diet Plan
, Army Vs. Navy , Local Chat , and a few others, snuck in there with just enough users to make the cut...
Showing posts with label facebook top 101. Show all posts
Showing posts with label facebook top 101. Show all posts
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Growth Trends reveal true growth
I realize every time we rank apps on the basis of pure growth rate between two dates we open the door for lots of questions:
- What about NEW apps which didn't have users at the start of the period (we leave those out, but every so often we have one which makes us re-think that - this latest period it was Likeness by the successful FB developer Peter Louis, which entered the scene with over 800,000 users!). Peter co-authored SuperWall.
- How can you compare the growth rate of an app with 100,000 users with an app with only 1,000 users? (It's easier than trying to put them in groups... but we may start doing that).
- Isn't it more important to see the TREND of growth across multiple periods rather than just ranking based on 1 period? (YES! .. hence, this post..)
So we decided to tackle that last question just a bit here... We looked at the trend of growth across 3 periods: June 28 through July 6, July 6 through July 11, July 11 through July 17. Three growth rates tell us much more than only one.
Overall, most apps growth rates decline after the first burst. And, in fact, we've seen about 200 out of 1000 which just disappear after their first showing on our list... mainly due to not growing fast enough to stay in the top 800 or so most used apps. Consistently increasing growth rates are very rare indeed... only 24 apps in our list of just over a thousand achieved this, and that includes 3 which started with a negative growth rate, one of which is still negative (Lamefactor) - just less negative than when it started ;) [BTW, 167 apps were noted as "turn-arounds, which saw a decrease in growth rate from the first period to the second and subsequently increased in growth rate again in the third growth period...]
There are two notable exceptions, which you can see clearly in the chart above which shows all 24 of those with a positive trend:
PuzzleBee , by TheBroth: Started with 3,158 users on June 28th... then had a consistently increasing daily growth rate - 10.55%, 15.94%, 92.04% - to end on July 17th with 68,259 users. An average growth rate of 39.51% ! Take note... and give Nick O'Neil some credit for spotting the value in this app back on June 22, when he blogged about it.
Google Reader Shared Items, by Mario Romero, was growing at a respectable 1%+ per day and then Robert Scoble wrote about it as a Digg killer, others picked up the story and wham - the daily growth rate of this app jumped to over 41% ! Let's see if that trend continues since at the end of the period we're discussing (July 17th eod), it still had only 4,064 users.
There are a few others with a continuing positive trend, but most of them are still light on users in total - and the 24 in the chart only included those with over 1000 users as of July 17th.
- What about NEW apps which didn't have users at the start of the period (we leave those out, but every so often we have one which makes us re-think that - this latest period it was Likeness by the successful FB developer Peter Louis, which entered the scene with over 800,000 users!). Peter co-authored SuperWall.
- How can you compare the growth rate of an app with 100,000 users with an app with only 1,000 users? (It's easier than trying to put them in groups... but we may start doing that).
- Isn't it more important to see the TREND of growth across multiple periods rather than just ranking based on 1 period? (YES! .. hence, this post..)
So we decided to tackle that last question just a bit here... We looked at the trend of growth across 3 periods: June 28 through July 6, July 6 through July 11, July 11 through July 17. Three growth rates tell us much more than only one.
Overall, most apps growth rates decline after the first burst. And, in fact, we've seen about 200 out of 1000 which just disappear after their first showing on our list... mainly due to not growing fast enough to stay in the top 800 or so most used apps. Consistently increasing growth rates are very rare indeed... only 24 apps in our list of just over a thousand achieved this, and that includes 3 which started with a negative growth rate, one of which is still negative (Lamefactor) - just less negative than when it started ;) [BTW, 167 apps were noted as "turn-arounds, which saw a decrease in growth rate from the first period to the second and subsequently increased in growth rate again in the third growth period...]
There are two notable exceptions, which you can see clearly in the chart above which shows all 24 of those with a positive trend:
PuzzleBee , by TheBroth: Started with 3,158 users on June 28th... then had a consistently increasing daily growth rate - 10.55%, 15.94%, 92.04% - to end on July 17th with 68,259 users. An average growth rate of 39.51% ! Take note... and give Nick O'Neil some credit for spotting the value in this app back on June 22, when he blogged about it.
Google Reader Shared Items, by Mario Romero, was growing at a respectable 1%+ per day and then Robert Scoble wrote about it as a Digg killer, others picked up the story and wham - the daily growth rate of this app jumped to over 41% ! Let's see if that trend continues since at the end of the period we're discussing (July 17th eod), it still had only 4,064 users.
There are a few others with a continuing positive trend, but most of them are still light on users in total - and the 24 in the chart only included those with over 1000 users as of July 17th.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Facebook Top 101 Growing Apps - July 11-17
New data! Here's a new view of the fastest growing facebook apps. More than half of the fastest growing 101 facebook apps over the past 6 days were not even on the charts just 11 days ago (less than a couple of hundred users on June 6th).
Just a few quick notes (more to come soon):
A new class of apps - "I watch _____" was introduced by Watercooler, Inc. (who, btw, have no author link in FB). While none are huge in terms of total users (approx 2000 each), they have 5 in the top 101 fastest growing list - and all of them are new within the past 11 days.
Vibrating Hamster? I'm not even going to ask, no less add the app to my profile... but over 17,000 people were curious enough to push this "app" to the 4th fastest growing over the past 6 days.
9 out of the top 10 apps practically didn't exist 11 days ago...
Just a few quick notes (more to come soon):
A new class of apps - "I watch _____" was introduced by Watercooler, Inc. (who, btw, have no author link in FB). While none are huge in terms of total users (approx 2000 each), they have 5 in the top 101 fastest growing list - and all of them are new within the past 11 days.
Vibrating Hamster? I'm not even going to ask, no less add the app to my profile... but over 17,000 people were curious enough to push this "app" to the 4th fastest growing over the past 6 days.
9 out of the top 10 apps practically didn't exist 11 days ago...
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Facebook Stats Commentary: comparing app rankings in small doses
Doing a bit of analysis on the numbers, I noticed some interesting movements…
For the top 101 apps as ranked by pure number of users – comparing 6/25 to 6/28 (that’s 3 days difference):
- 20 apps moved up in rank (Zombies moved from position 72 to 37!)
- 16 apps stayed in their same position
- 57 apps moved down in rank
- 8 apps got pushed off the list (which means 8 new apps showed up)
65% of apps moved down or off the list and only 20% moved up… That’s a pretty clear signal… or is it? Actually, out of the top 101 Apps, only 8 new entrants displaced 8 apps from the prior period - but this might be considered significant, given that this comparison is really just a 3 day difference. I think this motion of the top ranked apps is a combination of 2 factors, both related to the newness of the platform:
First, some applications with the most users still might not deserve to be there (but some do - like iLike), but they are, due only to lack of anything else for Facebook users to look at.
Second, many new apps grow fast, but quickly reach their viral ceiling – being tried and sometimes adopted by the niche audience to which it might directly apply, but then having nowhere else to grow (that’s my definition of the “Viral Ceiling”, being coined here for the very first time as far as I know without searching Google and likely disproving that claim ;).
Now, let’s do the same analysis on Growth Rate Ranking…
For the top 101 apps as ranked by their growth rate – comparing the period of 6/21-6/25 to the period of 6/21-28 (yes – just 3 days added to the periods of comparison):
- 7 apps moved up in rank
- 5 apps stayed in their same position
- 76 apps moved down in rank
- 13 apps got pushed off the list.
89% of applications moved down/off the list and only 7% moved up! The range of Daily Growth Rates shifted up – leaving some pretty healthy growing apps (at say, 7% daily growth!) to fall off the list… The ranges were:
- 7% to 2675% from June 21-25
- 11% to 4955% from June 21-28 (you had to grow 11% per DAY to be top 101!)
With all this apparent downward shifting – do you think the top ranked Applications have suffered? No. On the Growth ranking, 9 out of the top 10 ranked Apps were still in the top 10 this week. On the Most Users ranking, all 10 stayed in the top 10 – with only minor shifts among them.
For now, this looks a bit like early web patterns, where any content was hit hard (sort of)… just throw something fun at this crowd, and they’ll try it. If they like it just a little bit, they’ll pass it on to their friends, passively, just in the act of trying it ("JR just added the Magic 8 Ball Application" - which, by the way, was ranked 94th in growth and then fell off the top 101 growth ranking, but actually moved UP from 29th to 28th in number of users - with 445k as of 6/28!)
For the top 101 apps as ranked by pure number of users – comparing 6/25 to 6/28 (that’s 3 days difference):
- 20 apps moved up in rank (Zombies moved from position 72 to 37!)
- 16 apps stayed in their same position
- 57 apps moved down in rank
- 8 apps got pushed off the list (which means 8 new apps showed up)
65% of apps moved down or off the list and only 20% moved up… That’s a pretty clear signal… or is it? Actually, out of the top 101 Apps, only 8 new entrants displaced 8 apps from the prior period - but this might be considered significant, given that this comparison is really just a 3 day difference. I think this motion of the top ranked apps is a combination of 2 factors, both related to the newness of the platform:
First, some applications with the most users still might not deserve to be there (but some do - like iLike), but they are, due only to lack of anything else for Facebook users to look at.
Second, many new apps grow fast, but quickly reach their viral ceiling – being tried and sometimes adopted by the niche audience to which it might directly apply, but then having nowhere else to grow (that’s my definition of the “Viral Ceiling”, being coined here for the very first time as far as I know without searching Google and likely disproving that claim ;).
Now, let’s do the same analysis on Growth Rate Ranking…
For the top 101 apps as ranked by their growth rate – comparing the period of 6/21-6/25 to the period of 6/21-28 (yes – just 3 days added to the periods of comparison):
- 7 apps moved up in rank
- 5 apps stayed in their same position
- 76 apps moved down in rank
- 13 apps got pushed off the list.
89% of applications moved down/off the list and only 7% moved up! The range of Daily Growth Rates shifted up – leaving some pretty healthy growing apps (at say, 7% daily growth!) to fall off the list… The ranges were:
- 7% to 2675% from June 21-25
- 11% to 4955% from June 21-28 (you had to grow 11% per DAY to be top 101!)
With all this apparent downward shifting – do you think the top ranked Applications have suffered? No. On the Growth ranking, 9 out of the top 10 ranked Apps were still in the top 10 this week. On the Most Users ranking, all 10 stayed in the top 10 – with only minor shifts among them.
For now, this looks a bit like early web patterns, where any content was hit hard (sort of)… just throw something fun at this crowd, and they’ll try it. If they like it just a little bit, they’ll pass it on to their friends, passively, just in the act of trying it ("JR just added the Magic 8 Ball Application" - which, by the way, was ranked 94th in growth and then fell off the top 101 growth ranking, but actually moved UP from 29th to 28th in number of users - with 445k as of 6/28!)
Monday, July 2, 2007
Facebook Stats: Fastest Growing Apps last week
Some updated stats on Facebook Apps - this time with a comparison of where these apps fell on this ranking the last time we did it versus this time... Not a perfectly consistent process yet - as the last time was a shorter period and ended in the middle of last week... while the stats for this week are pretty much a full week (or a bit more... June 21-28). Also notice that most of the top apps according to the Facebook's raw number of total users have dropped off this growth rate ranking just due to the challenge of adding upwards of 50,000 or more users per week to achieve a growth rate at the levels shown in this top 101.
I'm guessing we'll continue to see Sticky Notes grow, as it's one of those standard useful thingy's... and, well, sticky ;)
There's some real consistent growth in a few unique-ish entries, like Zombies, PersonalDNA and Beeeeeeeer... and you'll see some fast growing up-n-comers like Greek Pride and Fried Wheel...
I'm guessing we'll continue to see Sticky Notes grow, as it's one of those standard useful thingy's... and, well, sticky ;)
There's some real consistent growth in a few unique-ish entries, like Zombies, PersonalDNA and Beeeeeeeer... and you'll see some fast growing up-n-comers like Greek Pride and Fried Wheel...
Who won the most Facebook users last week?
This week it seemed only fair to show why some of the top apps, which have several million Facebook users, have what appears to be (in this bizarro-world of Facebook growth) a modest growth rate of "only" 5-10% per week...
We've sorted by the raw number of users added week-to-week... This gives a beter sense of how strong some of the top apps are still growing. In other words, to grow 5% when you've got 1 million users(+50,000 users!) is harder than to grow 5% when you're still in the discovery phase with only, say, 10,000 users (+500 users)...
That said, this view also highlights those Apps which add tremendous numbers of users despite their small size... What is "Zombies" , anyway ?
We've sorted by the raw number of users added week-to-week... This gives a beter sense of how strong some of the top apps are still growing. In other words, to grow 5% when you've got 1 million users(+50,000 users!) is harder than to grow 5% when you're still in the discovery phase with only, say, 10,000 users (+500 users)...
That said, this view also highlights those Apps which add tremendous numbers of users despite their small size... What is "Zombies" , anyway ?
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Facebook Stats: Fastest Growing Apps
The prior post was really just the top apps, as rated by the number of users and then sorted by growth rate... This sheet will show the 101 fastest growing facebook apps which have at least 1000 users - all as of June 25th. The growth rate for this sheet used something slightly more current to remove some noise - it measures growth for a slightly shorter, more recent period of June 21 through June 25.
There's still some noise here, as you can see... "I Can Has Cheezburger" is on the list, and then of course, near the top of the list is "Beeeeeeeer" ;)
Also - notice that only 6 apps in the top 101 fastest growing has over 100,000 users - so it's the long tail of apps which seem to have these spiking growth rates... When we get the "Momentum Ranking" going, that should help give a true picture of the apps to watch.
There's still some noise here, as you can see... "I Can Has Cheezburger" is on the list, and then of course, near the top of the list is "Beeeeeeeer" ;)
Also - notice that only 6 apps in the top 101 fastest growing has over 100,000 users - so it's the long tail of apps which seem to have these spiking growth rates... When we get the "Momentum Ranking" going, that should help give a true picture of the apps to watch.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Facebook Stats: Top Apps by Growth Rate
Let's start here... Facebook has become the new favorite target for developers of gadgety stuff, and a clear path to acquire thousands of users through both real value as well as simple experiments... You see everyone from the highly successful entrenched sites - like Digg, Twitter and Last.fm to the totally experimental and alleged fun - like Food Fight! and Simpson's Quotes.
I started capturing data on Facebook user counts on 19th June, so below are the 101 Facebook apps with the most users (as of June 25) , sorted by Growth Rate for the period of June 19th through June 25th.
Notice some hot apps appear on the bottom of the list with the Growth Rate not calculated, as they didn't even appear on the list on June 19th... but that means they've grown to their current levels fast... so don't overlook these.
There are plenty of apps which had huge growth rates for this period but didn't have at least 18,680 users to make the top 101 most used... but I'll likely highlight a few in future posts, as they really are the ones to watch if you watch often enough...
I started capturing data on Facebook user counts on 19th June, so below are the 101 Facebook apps with the most users (as of June 25) , sorted by Growth Rate for the period of June 19th through June 25th.
Notice some hot apps appear on the bottom of the list with the Growth Rate not calculated, as they didn't even appear on the list on June 19th... but that means they've grown to their current levels fast... so don't overlook these.
There are plenty of apps which had huge growth rates for this period but didn't have at least 18,680 users to make the top 101 most used... but I'll likely highlight a few in future posts, as they really are the ones to watch if you watch often enough...
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