App Store Keywords for Kids Apps: Why Search Results Rarely Show the Kids Category

Apple's category definitions list 27 categories, one of which is Kids, available on iOS and iPadOS only. Guideline 2.3.8 reserves terms such as "For Kids" and "For Children" in app metadata for the Kids Category. So a developer who wants those exact words in the name or subtitle needs to be in that category, and a developer who is not should avoid them. The phrases we tested ("kids games", "abc for kids") are search queries, not metadata, so our measurement does not breach that rule; your metadata is different.

Estimated volume / estimated difficulty (0-100). English phrases in every storefront.

"Abc for kids" scores 0 / 0 in Great Britain: the volume formula gives 0 when a query returns no apps, and that is what happened there. The same phrase is 53 / 58 in the US, so a single spelling or regional phrase ("alphabet", "letters") can explain a lot. "Baby sounds" has a difficulty at or below 5 in every storefront, a sign of a sparse area, not of free demand.

Names are the longest in the study, and only a fifth contain every word of the query. A children's app name tends to describe an audience and a promise ("learn", "play", an age) instead of repeating the search term. The category has 350 top-10 slots against 360 elsewhere because that one empty query contributed none.

1. Measure against Education and Games, not "Kids". Because most results are in those genres, your real competition for these phrases is Education and Games apps, and some Entertainment apps. Check your target phrase against them, not against a Kids ranking that the API cannot show.
2. Keep the Kids category decision separate. Whether to be in Kids is a rules and audience question first. Read choosing primary and secondary category before you move for the sake of a keyword.
3. Write names for people. With long names the norm and few exact titles, the app name keyword strategy guide on the 30-character limit is the practical companion.
4. Prefer specific phrases, and test them. "Children stories" (10.3) and "abc for kids" (11.3) are far below "kids games" (45.8). A low score is a lead for testing, not a result.

Six generic English phrases per category, queried through the iTunes Search API (entity=software, limit=25) in the US, GB, DE, JP, FR and BR, top 10 results analysed; Kids is 36 queries and 350 slots, fetched 2026-11-01. The phrase-to-category match is approximate, and for Kids it is by construction. See the research methodology, the research hub and how we measure. Data: category CSV.

LocalASO is a Mac app that estimates volume and difficulty in 52 storefronts, in the local language of each. It costs $29 one time; the download is free but the app needs a license key to run. See pricing.