It appears that the call for live streaming on YouTube is extremely robust this time, as right after the declaration of the fact that the video sharing giant is making live video streaming more prominent on its platform, its app shot to the top of the App Store.
YouTube has been away from the top position since December 2015. Earlier this week however, YouTube relaxed the restrictions it has posed on live streaming, which was initially only available to the creators with 10,000 or more subscribers. It seems as if the move was one which was being anticipated by users. The apps shot to the top of App Store rankings (According to Sensor Tower) consequently dropping to #2.
The requirement for live streaming was recently lowered down to just 1,000 subscribers. Though the company did not make any official remark on this change, it did confirm that the service is now available for anyone with more than 1,000 subscribers, and not some random pool.
Meanwhile, YouTube is not so highly ranked on the Google Play, where it is #2 video player and #210 among all the apps. What’s interesting is that YouTube comes pre-installed in all the Android cell phones, and does not require any separate download.
Sensor Tower was the first firm to notice this jump on App Store and App Annie also seconded the fact that YouTube had not ranked #1 for Overall iPhone downloads in the U.S. since December 2015.
YouTube obviously is one of the most popular apps on the iOS, as its worst ranking by far this month has been #9 and has never gone bellow this count this entire year. However, it still requires an incredible amount of momentum to reach the top of top ten ladder. It is an indication that both the number and velocity of the downloads has witnessed a sizable increase.
The app could possibly have been a bigger success if it has changed its ASO strategy (App Store Search Optimization), similar to SEO, but for App Store’s search interface. By doing so, the app could have become more visible and highly ranked in the search results. Also, if it had worked a little more in the areas of marketing in order to boost its downloads, its popularity rates could have reached some other limits.
YouTube reaching the top of the charts is an indication that it still hails a big community within itself, along with the bright future of live video streaming. It is certain that with its masterstroke executed earlier this week, YouTube will now emerge as a bigger competitor to rival streaming services like Twitter’s Periscope and Facebook Live.
Top ten apps this morning were mobile games Ballz (#2, then moved to #1) and Blackbox (#7), and Messenger (#3), Snapchat (#4), Instagram (#5), Facebook (#6), Snapchat’s Bitmoji (#8), Google Maps (#9) and Netflix (#10). YouTube was on the top, however it slipped to number two after retaining the top position for most of the day.
