Key takeaways
- It is probably not your app. Sensor Tower data reported by The Star says new apps roughly doubled to about 560,000 in the first half of 2026 while downloads grew 2%.
- Check demand first. Search the store for the problem, search Reddit for people complaining about it and ask five of them if they would use your app this week.
- Google Play new personal accounts need 12 testers opted in for 14 days. Apple has no tester rule, just review.
- At AppTweak's US averages of 8.56% and 16.15%, 100 downloads takes about 1,200 page views on iPhone and about 620 on Google Play.
- Pick one way to market, not ten. Lenny Rachitsky found most big consumer apps got early users from a single channel and none from more than three.
- Count payers. RevenueCat's median is 2.8% download to paid in North America by day 35, so 100 users is roughly three customers.
What the video covers
- 0:00 I vibe coded my app. Now what?
- 1:08 Is anyone even looking for what I've built?
- 3:05 How do I get my app on the App Store and Google Play?
- 4:40 Why is nobody downloading my app?
- 6:23 How do I market my app?
- 9:44 How do I make money from my app?
- 11:07 What do I do this week?
Why is nobody finding my vibe coded app?
The store got crowded, and that is not a verdict on your idea. The Star, citing Sensor Tower, reports that new apps doubled to about 560,000 in the first half of 2026 while downloads grew only 2%. We think of the App Store as a street of shops. Since vibe coding took off, the street has twice as many shops and barely more people walking down it. Hardly anyone wanders into yours by luck.
A working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER Working Paper 35275, puts a number on it. The share of new iOS apps with fewer than 10 ratings after three months rose from about 78% in January 2025 to about 87% in April 2026. Treat that as a proxy for "failed to reach an audience", not as "zero users". The same paper finds AI coding tools lifted commits by up to 240% but shipped releases by only 30%. Building got easy. Being found did not.
Most founders we talk to now built the first version themselves with a tool like Lovable. They try to answer every question at once. They post everywhere, run some ads and lose a month or two. The fix is a sequence where each step unlocks the next.
Is anyone looking for what I built?
Sometimes, but nobody finds your app by accident. So before you spend a dollar or a weekend, run one check in three steps.
| Step | What you do | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Search the App Store and Google Play for the problem your app solves | If apps exist and have ratings, people want it |
| 2 | Search Reddit for people complaining about that problem | The exact words they use, which you will reuse in your subtitle |
| 3 | Ask five people who have the problem if they would use your app this week | Whether the idea survives a real person saying no |
Some people online say most AI built apps solve nothing and marketing cannot fix that. Sometimes they are right, and that is exactly what this check is for. If nobody is looking, change the app before you change the marketing. If people are looking, wanting alone is not enough, because you still have to get through the gates.
How do I get my app on the App Store and Google Play?
On Google Play, a new personal developer account cannot simply publish. Google's Play Console Help says new personal accounts must run a closed test with a minimum of 12 testers who have been opted in continuously for at least 14 days. A closed test is a private version of your app that only people you invite can download. After that you apply for production, which is Google's word for going public.
Your first 12 users are therefore a rule, not a goal. It forces you to find 12 real people before launch. Write the 12 names today. Use friends who have the problem and the people from your Reddit thread. Message each one and ask them to bring one more person, so you are past 12 before you need them. Then the order is simple. Invite testers, keep them in for 14 days and apply for production.
Apple has no tester rule. You submit for review, which means someone at Apple checks the app. Appbot's review of the process puts Apple review at 24 to 72 hours and Google Play at hours to several days. Plan for a few days, not weeks, and read the rejection note if you get one.
Why is nobody downloading my app?
Getting into the stores only opens the doors. If your shop window is bad, people walk past. Out of everyone who opens your page, only some download. AppTweak's 2025 US benchmarks put the average at 8.56% on the App Store and 16.15% on Google Play. Here is the arithmetic on those averages.
| Store | Average page to download | Page views for 100 downloads |
|---|---|---|
| App Store (US) | 8.56% | About 1,200 |
| Google Play (US) | 16.15% | About 600 |
Your numbers will differ, because AppTweak notes the rate swings a lot between categories. But the logic holds. If your page is weak, everything you try will look like it failed, when in reality people saw the page and walked away.
Some people say fixing the store page no longer works because the store is flooded. We think it is the opposite. The flood is why it matters more, because the page is the one part you fully control. Three things do most of the work.
- The icon. It is the first thing anyone sees in search.
- The first three screenshots. That is all most people look at, so show the problem getting solved.
- The subtitle. The one line under your name. Make it say the problem you found in that Reddit thread, in the words the complainers used.
We cover the full weekend version in our video on what ASO really costs and our diagnosis in why nobody is downloading your app.
How do I market my app?
Pick one way, just one. A search for how to market or promote an app gives you a long list. Lenny Rachitsky, who writes a newsletter on how products grow, studied the big consumer apps. He found most got early users from a single strategy and none from more than three. Ten flyers on ten walls get you almost nothing. Knocking on one door properly gets you in.
Paul Graham, who started Y Combinator, wrote in Do Things that Don't Scale that the most common unscalable thing founders have to do at the start is to recruit users manually. You cannot repeat that to a million people, and that is fine, because you only need a few hundred to start.
The four doors for your first users
| Door | How to use it |
|---|---|
| Your own list | Send the same short message to everyone you already know who has the problem |
| One community | Reply to the Reddit people complaining with a real answer, then message them one at a time: "I saw you struggling with this. I built something for it. Want to try it this week?" Keep count of who installs until you reach 100 |
| One creator | Find someone already talking about your problem on TikTok and work with them |
| One small ad test | After your page is fixed, with a budget you can afford to lose |
If Reddit sounds risky, you are not wrong to worry. One founder says Reddit bans promotion and another says it was his best channel. Help other people before you promote your own app.
Three public examples, with the caveats
All numbers below are what the founders say. We have not verified revenue or downloads.
- Payout. Connor Burd told Starter Story in an interview that he built the app in under two weeks and that the first lever was influencer campaigns with a creator already in the niche, which he says brought thousands of downloads. Paid ads came after. He reports about $20,000 a month within 50 days. He found his users manually before he bought them.
- GainFrame. The founder says AI writes most of his code and that he spent $5,674 in three months on Apple, TikTok and Reddit ads with little back. He switched to free content, mainly TikTok carousels, and fixed his store page. He reports about $944 a month and says himself that this is not a business yet.
- A studio of 12 apps and games. A founder posted on Reddit that he vibe coded more than 12 apps and games, mostly word games, reaching about 500,000 downloads, mostly on Google Play. Another commenter challenged the numbers and we could not verify them. The pattern is still useful. He kept each bet small, and a small bet is cheap to walk away from.
Should I run ads for my first users?
Not first, and never big. If you test ads, start small. Apple Ads Basic is Apple's simplest ad product. It charges only when someone installs, and eligible new accounts get a $100 credit. Testing small is cheaper than learning big.
How do I make money from my app?
A hundred users is not a hundred customers. RevenueCat's State of Subscription Apps 2026 looked at more than 100,000 subscription apps. In North America the median is 2.8% download to paid by day 35. In India and South-East Asia it is under 1%. So plan for three payers in your first 100 users. The three who pay will teach you more than the 1,000 who do not.
When you ask for payment changes the number a lot. RevenueCat reports that hard paywalls convert about 10.7% by day 35 against 2.1% for freemium, which is roughly five times better. But it also says year-one retention is nearly identical. So do not hide your price out of fear. Put it in front of your first 12 users. Someone saying it looks nice costs them nothing. Someone paying tells you the truth. Then message your first three payers and ask what made them pay. Their answer is what you say to the next 100.
Those numbers apply to subscription apps only, and they are medians. RevenueCat also reports that within two years, 17.3% of apps reach $1,000 a month in recurring revenue and 4.6% reach $10,000.
What do I do this week?
- Check that someone is looking for what you built.
- Write down 12 names and message each one.
- Fix the icon, first three screenshots and subtitle.
- Pick one door to market through.
- Count payers, not downloads.
If you think you do not have 100 people to message, that is fine. You start with 12 names. Do not go looking for 100 users. Find the one place where you can find 12, and build from there.
What we see across hundreds of apps
We have worked on hundreds of apps since 2015. The founders who reach us now often built the first version with an AI tool. The pattern is consistent. The build is finished, the page was written once in launch week, and the founder is trying six channels at once. The ones who get traction pick one door, fix the page first and watch one number, the people who pay.
That is also why we start every engagement by checking the store page before talking about ads. Ads send people to the same page, so a weak page wastes more of them. Our free audit shows where your listing stands today. For the surrounding pieces, see our guides to how to increase app downloads and post-launch app marketing.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get my first 100 users for a vibe coded app?
Work through five questions in order. Check that someone is looking for what you built, get through the store gates, fix your store page, pick one way to market and learn what to count. Start with 12 names of people who have the problem, not with 100 strangers.
Why is nobody downloading my vibe coded app?
Most likely the store is crowded and your page is not doing its job. A National Bureau of Economic Research paper found that about 87% of new iPhone apps had fewer than 10 ratings after three months by April 2026. Fix the icon, the first three screenshots and the subtitle before you spend on ads.
How many people need to see my app page to get 100 downloads?
At AppTweak's 2025 US averages of 8.56% on the App Store and 16.15% on Google Play, roughly 1,200 people on iPhone and 620 on Google Play. That is arithmetic on an average, so your own page will differ.
Why does Google Play need 12 testers before I can launch?
New personal developer accounts must run a closed test with at least 12 testers who stay opted in for 14 days in a row before they can apply for production access. Treat it as a forcing function to find your first 12 real users.
How many of my first 100 users will pay?
RevenueCat reports a median of 2.8% download to paid conversion by day 35 in North America and under 1% in India and South-East Asia, for subscription apps. Plan on about three payers per 100 downloads in North America.
Should I run ads for my first users?
Not first. Test with one small budget after your page is fixed. Apple Ads Basic charges only when someone installs and gives eligible new accounts a $100 credit. Founders who went straight to paid often report losing money before finding a channel that worked.
Related
- Why is nobody downloading my app?
- How much does ASO cost?
- How to build an app with AI
- How to get app downloads before launch
- App pre-launch marketing
- Post-launch app marketing
- App marketing services
Want to know why your app page is not converting?
Get a free app audit and see what to fix first, before you spend on ads.
Get the free app auditSources
- Vibe-coded apps are flooding the App Store: is that good for Apple?, The Star, 21 July 2026, citing Sensor Tower
- NBER Working Paper 35275, Demirer, Musolff and Yang, National Bureau of Economic Research
- Testing requirements for new personal developer accounts, Google Play Console Help
- App Store review approval and vibe coded delays, Appbot, 2026
- Mobile app store conversion rate benchmarks per category, AppTweak, May 2026
- How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1,000 users, Lenny Rachitsky, Lenny's Newsletter, 2020
- Do Things that Don't Scale, Paul Graham
- I vibe coded a $20K/month mobile app in 14 days, Starter Story
- GainFrame founder post, r/AppBusiness, July 2026
- Vibe coded 12+ mobile apps and games post, r/vibecoding, March 2026
- Apple Ads Basic, Apple
- State of Subscription Apps 2026, RevenueCat