Best time to publish to the stores

colander

I am about to publish a kids game and would like some advice on the best day to publish to take advantage of the Christmas holidays.

Apple features new games for two weeks and knowing kids will be getting iPhones and iPads on Christmas day when do people think I should publish now or closer to Christmas day?

UtopianGames

From past experience i would avoid a Christmas release unless you can get some decent exposure otherwise it will simply get lost in the storm.

Its too late now to release anyway as they take a week or 2 to review and close the store down for a while so i think you've missed the boat for iTunes.

colander

It is already approved and waiting for developer release. I have been doing a bit of reading and was starting to think that way. Might go for early January instead.

jigglybean

DBA are right. Christmas is swamped by the big players sucking up all the festive money. If your app is a paid app, I would look at releasing it the last weekend in January, when people have been paid their salaries and the kids are crying out for something new to play.

End Jan/Feb is always a good time to release stuff and pester the media about some coverage as new releases are thin on the ground

Gamelover456

I suggest waiting till January or February 2015, since the Apple App Store is going to be closed next week for Christmas.

AlchimiaStudios

Holidays are always hard to get noticed. If you have a Christmas themed game it might do decent, but with such saturation in the app store, it's gonna be hard.

colander

Thanks @DeepBlueApps @jigglybean @Gamelover456 @AlchimiaStudios for you input. I will take your collective advice and wait until the last week in January.

Any suggestions on the best day of the week to release? I found this paragraph below from a 2011 blog so it may not be relevant anymore;

In my experience, its usually 1 or 2 days before Apple rotates all its featured apps in the App Store, which falls around Thursday on my end (+8 EST) or Wednesday in the US. That is, if you want to up your chances of getting featured. Releasing an app a day after Apple rotates its featured items will most likely lessen your chance. I've had my apps featured this way, including app updates.