Star Wars Hype Drives App Installs

Star Wars app betterThe new Star Wars movie smashed box office records, but also had a massive impact on fans of the franchise’s appetite for Star Wars-themed apps.

AppsFlyer analysed over 1m app installs in the US across 15 different Star Wars-branded mobile apps in the App Store and Google Play to measure the blockbusters impact beyond the big screen.

While the Force was strong – installs spiked with the movies release – there was a big difference between iOS and Android users.
Organic installs spiked as The Force Awakened. Activity started taking off on release day, 18 December, since when AppsFlyer has seen a 3.5x increase in app installs for Star Wars-themed apps. The boost was much more pronounced on iOS, however, with app installs increasing by a factor of 5x, compared to only 2x on Android.

The analysis also found that marketing is making its mark on app installs as consumer engagement with ads for Star Wars-themed apps rose sharply. Since 15 December, AppsFlyer has seen an 8x increase in non-organic conversion (click-to-install) rates across Android and iOS compared to the first two weeks in December. Once again, iOS outperformed Android, with iOS conversion rates up 11x in the run-up to the movie release date, and Android conversion rates up 6x.