What organic traffic can I expect from publishing on Google Play, without other marketing?

Question

I've just published a new Android game on Google Play. It has been a bit over 48 hours. It's active in the store, and I can search for it by name to get to it. However, I've had 0 organic downloads thus far, only a couple from my friends. As far as I know, it has not been shown in the "new games" list yet, and the only store listing views in the stats are the ones from myself and friends.

Is there some time by which I can expect some "organic" exposure, or will I ever? Is promoting my game by other channels the only option?

I'm not asking for advice on promoting my game. I'm only asking about what organic exposure I can expect on Google Play.

Answer 1

Just throwing an app into an app store (however it is called on your platform) and waiting for people to download it is not enough to have a game take off. The usual user behavior is to either listen to recommendations from off-store resources (friends, websites, social media etc...) or just browse the top sellers and top-rated games in different categories. Some users will search by keywords, but will usually only look at the first few results, and result ranking also depends on number of downloads and rating. That means to attract new users through the app store you already need to have a large userbase.

A good presentation of your game in the app store can help (good screenshots, good descriptions, relevant keywords etc.), but it is very unlikely that you will get any downloads at all just by having it there.

When you want your game to be successful, you will have to promote it outside of the app store. Paid advertising is one option, but far from the only one. For details, check the question How can I promote my game?.