How Google Displays the App Installs Count on Google Play Listing?

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Have you ever experienced that when you watch numbers of installs on your Google Play Store Dev Console, you noticed that the number which is shown on your Dev Console is not the same as the numbers of installs displaying on Google Play Store Listing? Well, this is a very common observation, any Android Developer must have noticed. In short, this is because Google uses an algorithm that is quite complicated to understand.  

How does Google reflect install count now?

Nowadays, Google is really working on their own terms and doesn't reflect all the installs as it is on Play Store Listing. What does it mean to you? Basically, if your app has got let’s say 100,000+ Installs in total but Google may NOT reflect the same on your Play Store Listing, it might just show like 50,000+ or even less like 10,000+ which is quite unfair. Google hasn’t confirmed how they calculate this exactly or what algorithms they follow while calculating the installs count. The possible reason behind this could be one or more of the following:

• Google might have discarded a significant number of installs since they consider only unique user installs. If any same user has multiple Google accounts or multiple Android devices, Google will treat it as a single install. However, you may see numbers on your Dev Console as per unique device installs, not unique user installs, The latter is lower generally.
  
  
• Google takes time to process and reflect numbers on Google Play Listing. Generally, it takes a few days but may take a few weeks or even months some time.
  
  
• After EU GDPR Law, Google’s data privacy policy has become stricter and might affect the numbers as well.
  [Dated: May 2018] ANNOUNCEMENT BY GOOGLE: Changes to Play Console Data
  Over the next several weeks, you may notice some changes within your Play Console data due to the impact of the implementation of GDPR.
  Learn more => https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9023647 
  
  
• Your actual unique user installs might have just touched the next threshold but have NOT actually crossed it.

 

Earlier Google used to show Installs counts or numbers of installs based on groups or ranges (e.g: 10,000 - 50,000) but now they reflect them in threshold (e.g: 10,000+). If your app Install count is in a particular range then it will show a lower limit of the range as the threshold. For example, if you used to be in the 10,000 - 50,000 range then it will show just 10,000+ now.

Since we provide App Marketing Services and hence we have many newbie Android Developers from around the world not aware of these facts, we regularly get the query from our customers like “Where can I find a full list of the range of brackets?”. So, we have decided to give a complete Google Play Store Range List below for everyone’s preference.

Full List of the Play Store Install Count Thresholds used by Google [Updated on 19th February 2020]:

Group	Installs shown at Google Play Store Listing	Range in which your actual installs come
1	1+	(1 - 5)
2	5+	(6 - 10)
3	10+	(11 - 50)
4	50+	(51 - 100)
5	100+	(101 - 500)
6	500+	(501 - 1000)
7	1000+	(1001 - 5000)
8	5000+	(5001 - 10000)
9	10000+	(10001 - 50000)
10	50000+	(50001–100000)
11	100000+	(100001–500000)
12	500000+	(500001–1000000)
13	1000000+	(1000001–5000000)
14	5000000+	(5000001–10000000)
15	10000000+	(10000001–50000000)
16	50000000+	(50000001–100000000)
17	100000000+	(100000001–500000000)
18	500000000+	(500000001–1000000000)
19	1000000000+	(1000000001–5000000000)

Here you can see and understand how Google Play Store shows numbers of installs now.

If your app crosses any threshold, it takes around a week or so to update on the Play Store.

 

Let’s understand with an example: If your app has downloads under 1000 today then Google Play Store counts your app in Group 6 and on the same day your app crosses 1001 still Google Play shows that your app comes under Group 6. It happens because it takes time to get an update on the Google App Store list after that it shows that your app has 1000+ Installs

 

 📌 Fun Fact: Google Play Store has more than 1 billion users.

 

How did Google use to reflect installs count earlier?

We are into App Marketing business since last 4 years and earlier newbie developers used to get confused after buying installs from us, they used to complain a lot about installs count NOT increasing this happens because when you are watching the numbers of downloads/installs on your Dev Console it will show you exact numbers of downloads on your app but when you watch it on Google Play Store then it will display your app downloads in Groups (mentioned below).

Full List of the Play Store Install Count Groups used by Google:

Group	Installs shown at Google Play Store Listing	Actual installs count
1	(1 - 5)	1+
2	(6 - 10)	5+
3	(11 - 50)	10+
4	(51 - 100)	50+
5	(101 - 500)	100+
6	(501 - 1000)	500+
7	(1001 - 5000)	1000+
8	(5001 - 10000)	5000+
9	(10001 - 50000)	10000+
10	(50001–100000)	50000+
11	(100001–500000)	100000+
12	(500001–1000000)	500000+
13	(1000001–5000000)	1000000+
14	(5000001–10000000)	5000000+
15	(10000001–50000000)	10000000+
16	(50000001–100000000)	50000000+
17	(100000001–500000000)	100000000+
18	(500000001–1000000000)	500000000+
19	(1000000001–5000000000)	1000000000+

Here you can see and understand how Google Play Store shows numbers of installs earlier.

 

Let’s understand with an example: If your app has between 100-500 installs in your app, then your app comes under Group 2 and on Google Play Store it will display that your app has 3 Thousand Installs. But if your app crosses 500+ Installs, then your app comes under Group 3 and on Google Play Store it will display that your app has under 1000 Installs,  it shows that your app has 1000 - 5000 Installs.

 

 📌 Do You Know? Which are the most downloaded apps on iOS and Android in 2019? WhatsApp is the most downloaded app on iOS and Android.

 

Where I can view my exact numbers of downloads on my app?

You can view the exact numbers of downloads on Google Play Dev Console. In order to look at the install count of your app, go to Google Play console - Dashboard page - New users acquired (Select 'Lifetime' from the top-right dropdown). Please note that if you are running promotion then It can take up to 48 hours (or sometimes even more) to reflect the stats at Google Play Dev Console and make sure you are selecting proper date ranges (it's good to add 1 day extra before/after the start/end dates to avoid lags due to the difference in reporting time zones) according to the campaign run time.

 

 📌 Fun Fact: In the year 2017 around 700K (700,000) apps were removed from Google Play Store.

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