Top Grossing vs Top Free vs Top Paid: What They Mean
Updated 19 Oct 2026
Free measures downloads, Paid measures purchases, Grossing measures money. They answer different questions and often rank the same app very differently.
Top Free
Apps with no up-front price, ranked by new downloads over a short recent window. This is the visibility chart: it is what casual browsers see first and it reacts within a day to launches, press and promotions.
Top Paid
Apps with an up-front price, ranked by purchases. Smaller volumes move it: a few hundred sales a day can reach the top 10 in many countries. Utilities, pro tools and premium games live here.
Top Grossing
Every app, ranked by revenue including in-app purchases and subscriptions. It is dominated by free-to-play games, dating and streaming apps. A #1 grossing app can sit outside the free top 100 because its money comes from a smaller, paying audience.
Which chart should you watch?
| Goal | Chart |
|---|---|
| Awareness, launch momentum | Top Free (overall and your category) |
| Premium app sales | Top Paid |
| Monetisation health, competitor revenue | Top Grossing |
Compare them for any app
Every AppWinners app page lists the app's position on all three charts in every country, side by side.
