Which app categories have the most neglected leaders?
October 1, 2026 · data as of September 28, 2026
Across 819 App Store niches, we measured how many of the top ten apps have gone nine months or more without an update. Neglect is rarer than founders hope, and concentrated in a few genres.
The short version
- Neglect is rarer than founders hope. In the typical niche, one or two of the top ten apps have gone nine months without an update; the rest keep shipping.
- Only 4.7% of niches have a top ten that is mostly neglected — where half or more of the leaders have gone quiet.
- Lifestyle has the most: 15.4% of its niches. In Social Networking, Racing, Word, Finance and others, not a single niche does.
- New apps still get in: in the median niche, 10–20% of the top ten launched in the last 18 months.
Share of niches with mostly neglected leaders
Niches where half or more of the top ten apps have not been updated in nine months or more.
The whole table
| Genre | Niches | Neglected in top 10 (median) | Mostly neglected | New in top 10 (median) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lifestyle | 39 | 10% | 15.4% | 10% |
| Games | 32 | 20% | 9.4% | 10% |
| Education | 49 | 10% | 8.2% | 10% |
| Graphics & Design | 26 | 10% | 7.7% | 10% |
| Food & Drink | 26 | 5% | 7.7% | 10% |
| Medical | 16 | 20% | 6.3% | 10% |
| Utilities | 97 | 20% | 5.2% | 10% |
| Photo & Video | 85 | 10% | 4.7% | 10% |
| Business | 45 | 10% | 4.4% | 20% |
| Music | 51 | 10% | 3.9% | 20% |
| Health & Fitness | 56 | 10% | 3.6% | 10% |
| Entertainment | 31 | 10% | 3.2% | 20% |
| Productivity | 100 | 10% | 2% | 10% |
| Social Networking | 20 | 10% | 0% | 10% |
| Racing | 11 | 10% | 0% | 0% |
| Word | 10 | 10% | 0% | 10% |
| Finance | 61 | 0% | 0% | 10% |
| Shopping | 11 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
What this means if you are building
Do not choose a genre because it sounds sleepy; choose a niche because its leaders are. Neglect is a property of a search phrase, not a category: even in a busy genre there are phrases whose top ten stopped shipping a year ago, and their users are waiting for someone who ships.
Check any app with the free app update checker, or see every niche's share of neglected leaders on SideRadar.
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15.4%
of Lifestyle app niches have a top ten that is mostly neglected
Method and limits
- 819 App Store niches in the United States, each the top ten search results for one job (“receipt scanner”, “plant identifier”). Genres with at least ten niches are shown: 766 niches in 18 genres.
- An app counts as neglected when the store's current version is nine months old or more. Share is per niche's top ten, then the median across the genre's niches.
- “Mostly neglected” means half or more of a niche's top ten are neglected.
- A new app in the top ten is one launched in the last 18 months. Launch dates are estimated from the store's first version where the store does not say.
- This is one country and one moment. Leaders in smaller markets are often less maintained than in the US.
Using this data?
Free to quote and cite with a link to this page: https://sideradar.com/research/neglected-app-categories