Facebook Cookbook

Which Apps Are Most Popular?

Problem

Riding onto the Platform battlefield means taking on over 26,000 opponents. Sun Tzu once said:

Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.

Anyone can take on a thousand battles, but 26,000? That takes real courage. How can I possibly know thine enemy when there are so damn many of them?

Solution

You’re probably wishing that someone had gone out and built some kind of thing that would tell you which apps have the most installs or active users. If that’s true, it must be your lucky day! A few different people have done exactly that. There are two solutions with two very different approaches:

SocialMedia’s Appsaholic

You can either install the Appsaholic Facebook application (http://apps.facebook.com/appsaholic) or register for an account on http://www.socialmedia.com and then use the web application. (If you’re doing any work on Bebo or OpenSocial, go for the web version because it can track apps on all platforms.)

Deft Labs’ AppHound

AppHound is available as a Facebook app (http://apps.facebook.com/apphound).

Discussion

Either one of those apps will help peel back the curtain and give you a glimpse into the sometimes bizarre world of Facebook app popularity. They won’t, of course, tell you what made each of the apps as popular as it is, but they will help you develop an understanding of the kinds of apps people install, what motivates them to keep the app after installation, and general trends rippling their way across the Platform ...