Facebook's iPhone App Vaults to #1 on Suspected Ranking Algorithm Changes

Earlier today on our sister site Inside Mobile Apps, we reported that Apple may have changed the ranking algorithm for the iOS app store, favoring active usage in addition to downloads. A number of the bigger pay-per-install networks, which help developers break into the top of the charts through buying downloads, noticed strange shifts in the rankings last week that seemed to favor older apps with large active user bases like Netflix and Pandora.

While Apple hasn’t publicly confirmed the changes, the big beneficiary has been Facebook, which scaled the charts to number #1 after having mostly lingered between #10 and #20 for the last 16 months.

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