TL;DR: We tracked nine core toddler and kids-learning searches in the US store, with data up to October 12, 2026. The top 250 results for those nine searches hold 1,130 different apps. Only 1.5 of the 10 top spots change hands in an average week. 36 developers own 339 of the 1,130 apps, and 83% of the top-10 places we can attribute go to a developer with two or more apps in these results. Getting into the top 10 usually takes a large rating base: only 7 of the 41 top-10 apps we could measure have under 10,000 US ratings. It also takes an active product page. 45% of top-10 apps ran an A/B test since March, against 5% of apps ranked 51 to 250.
When we looked at the apps that climbed most in US search between March and July 2026, half of the top 50 were toddler or preschool apps. We explained one of them, Keiki, in detail. This study widens the view to who is in these results, how often they move, and what the winners do on their listings. We took nine searches with Apple popularity scores between 30 and 42 (the scale tops out near 47): "toddler games", "preschool games", "learning games for kids", "kids games", "baby games", "educational games for kids", "toddler", "games for toddlers" and "toddler learning games". For each, we rebuilt the US result list for October 12, 2026, then looked at who ranks, how long they stay, and how their listings look.
1,130 apps share nine searches, from at least 663 developers
Apple shows 250 results per search. Across our nine searches that is 2,250 places, filled by 1,130 distinct apps. The 1,130 apps come from at least 663 developers. The count is a floor. Twenty-one ids from the results are absent from our app database, so we cannot name their developers.
The overlap is the reason the niche feels crowded. An app that ranks high for "toddler games" usually ranks high for a second search too. Bebi: Baby Games for Preschool is in the top 10 of 8 of the 9 searches. Bluey: Let's Play! was in 7 and PBS KIDS Games in 5. Across the nine searches there are 89 top-10 places, filled by 48 different apps.
| Search | Apple popularity score | Top-10 apps that were also top 10 24 weeks earlier | Different apps in the top 10, 13 weeks |
|---|---|---|---|
| toddler games | 41.4 | 5 of 10 | 18 |
| preschool games | 42.3 | 7 of 10 | 12 |
| learning games for kids | 41.3 | 3 of 10 | 14 |
| kids games | 40.9 | 5 of 10 | 14 |
| baby games | 38.6 | 4 of 10 | 13 |
| educational games for kids | 34.7 | 4 of 10 | 25 |
| toddler | 33.4 | 7 of 10 | 13 |
| games for toddlers | 32.2 | 7 of 10 | 16 |
| toddler learning games | 30.3 | 7 of 10 | 12 |
The top 10 changes by one or two apps a week
We rebuilt each search's result list at 26 weekly checkpoints. In an average week and search, 1.5 apps entered the top 10. In 56 of the 225 search-weeks, nothing changed.
Looking back from October 12, the top 10 is stable over a month and drifts over a season. Across the nine searches, 74 of 90 top-10 places (82%) were held by an app that was also top 10 four weeks earlier. After 12 weeks that falls to 59 of 90 (66%), and after 24 weeks to 49 of 90 (54%). In half a year, nearly half of every top 10 was replaced.
"Educational games for kids" is the least stable of the nine. 25 different apps held a top-10 place in the last 13 weeks, twice as many as for "preschool games" or "toddler learning games" (12 each). The same pattern appeared in our study of 2,760 long-lived top-10 results: the less specific the phrase, the shorter the stay.
Keiki, the subject of our case study, shows how fast a place can slip on the head terms. On "toddler games" it ranked 28 on April 13 and 50 on October 12.
Developers with several apps hold most of the top 10
Of the 89 top-10 places, 81 belong to apps we can match to a developer. 83% of those 81 places went to a developer that has at least two apps somewhere in the 250 results of our nine searches. For places 1 to 50 the share is 70%, and for all 250 places it is 59%. 134 of the 663 developers have two or more apps in the results, and 36 have five or more.
| Developer | Top-10 places | Apps in a top 10 | Apps in the 250 results |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bimi Boo Kids Learning Games for Toddlers | 11 | 6 | 18 |
| Budge Studios (Bluey, PAW Patrol) | 9 | 2 | 11 |
| Bebi Family Games | 8 | 1 | 4 |
| PBS KIDS | 5 | 1 | 2 |
| StudyPad (Splash Jr, SplashLearn) | 5 | 3 | 4 |
| Avocado Mobile | 4 | 1 | 1 |
A large number of apps does not guarantee a place. TOYA TAP has 21 apps in our results, with 7 in a top 50 and none in a top 10. Happy Touch has 23 apps and 2 in a top 50. Bimi Boo has 18 apps, 14 in a top 50 and 6 in a top 10, and its icons share one bear mascot. Bebi, on the other hand, holds eight top-10 places with one app and has only three others in the results. We keep the full portfolio story for a separate study.
34 of 41 top-10 apps have more than 10,000 US ratings
We read each top-10 app's latest US rating count up to October 12. Of the 48 apps in a top 10, 41 had a reading. The median was 47,952 ratings. Seven apps have fewer than 10,000, and three have fewer than 2,000.
Position matters. Across all top-10 places, the median app had 130,312 US ratings. For places 11 to 50, it was 36,405. The top 10 is held by older apps: 41 of the 42 top-10 apps we can date were released between 2011 and 2023.
One app breaks the pattern. Play Tots: Calm Toddler Games, released on April 24, 2026, was fifth on "toddler" with 18 US ratings. It is the only one of the 41 with fewer than 1,000. Its name contains the exact phrase "Toddler Games" and it changed its subtitle once, so an exact name can lift a new app on a short search. It is in none of the other eight result lists.
Ratings keep growing for the leaders. For 40 top-10 apps with at least 500 ratings in April, the median growth between April and October was 6.2%. Buddy.ai grew by 48%.
Names carry the keywords and often the child's age
The 42 top-10 apps that we can read have names of 26.9 characters on average, and subtitles of 27.5. Both fields allow 30. Almost no one leaves them short.
- 34 of 42 names contain "toddler", "baby", "preschool" or "kids".
- In 45 of 81 top-10 places (56%), every word of the search phrase is in the app's name or subtitle. In only 7 places (9%) none of the words appear.
- 17 of 42 add a child's age to the name or subtitle, such as "2+", "2-4" or "3+ years old".
- Developers with several apps write near-copies: "Toddler Learning Games for 2+" with the subtitle "Baby game and kids puzzles 3-5", and "Learning Games for Toddlers 2+" with "Kids game for 3,4,5 year olds".
The metadata does not move much. Of 33 top-10 apps with a clean snapshot history since March, 12 changed their name or subtitle. The strongest apps keep the text and test the page.
Top-10 apps test their product page nearly 10 times as often
We counted Product Page Optimization tests that our crawler detected on the en-US page since March 1, 2026:
| Best position in the nine searches | Apps | Apps with a test | Share | Tests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 10 | 42 | 19 | 45% | 55 |
| 11 to 50 | 199 | 30 | 15% | 68 |
| 51 to 250 | 868 | 40 | 5% | 98 |
The pattern shows on one search. Take the "toddler games" top 10: Bebi (#1) had 2 tests since March, "Toddler Games for 3+ years old" had 3 and Bimi Boo's "Kids Cooking Game for Toddlers" had 3. Bluey, PBS KIDS and Dino Fun had none. This matches our study of 53,000 product page experiments: the apps that test are the apps that rank. We cannot tell if testing causes the rank or if a high rank pays for testing, because big apps do both.
What it takes to get into the top 10
From these nine searches:
- Ratings are the entry fee. 83% of top-10 apps with a reading have more than 10,000 US ratings.
- Put the exact phrase in the name or subtitle. 56% of top-10 places went to apps that carry every search word in those two fields.
- Add the age. 17 of 42 top-10 apps say who the app is for in the name or subtitle.
- Run tests on the product page. 45% of the top 10 did, against 15% in places 11 to 50.
- Expect a short stay. Roughly half of a top 10 is replaced in six months.
- Start with a short, exact phrase if you are new. The one new app in our top 10s got in through "toddler", with a short exact name.
To see these results for your own keywords, AppSigma tracks search positions, listing changes and A/B tests for the apps you follow.
Method notes: nine US searches, positions from our ranking log. We rebuilt each result list for a date from the last logged position of every app, and a check against the latest crawl reproduced all nine current result lists exactly. Weekly checkpoints depend on how often our crawler logs an app, so a checkpoint can show the state of up to a few days earlier. Data stops on October 12, 2026. 21 result ids appear in neither our app database nor Apple's lookup, so they count as places but not as developers, ratings or listings. Rating counts are the latest US reading on or before the date and are missing for some small apps, which makes the lower bands look better than they are. Names and subtitles come from the latest snapshot on or before October 12. For apps without a snapshot the stored name is used, and one app with a German snapshot is read from its stored name. A/B tests are tests detected on the en-US page and miss tests that end between two crawls. Developer is the developer id in the App Store.
Frequently asked questions
How many apps compete for toddler game searches on the App Store?
Apple lists 250 results per search. Over nine toddler and kids-learning searches that came to 1,130 different apps from at least 663 developers on October 12, 2026, with most of the top places held by developers that publish several apps.
How often do the top 10 apps change for toddler keywords?
Slowly in a given week and quickly over a season. On average one or two of the ten places changed hands per week in our nine searches. After six months, only 54% of the top-10 places belonged to apps that had already been in it.
How many ratings does a toddler app need to reach the top 10?
Usually tens of thousands. The median among the top-10 apps we could measure was about 48,000. One new app did reach the top 10 for the short search "toddler" with just 18 ratings.