One thing I noticed with people playing the game was that they seemed to struggle initially with the rotating of the squares to reveal an S or an O. So I made a little User Interface change to make this a little easier to do. And then I released it to the App Store. It was submitted on the 28 Dec and was in Review on the 2 Jan and then accepted on 2 Jan (an hour or so later).
In the busy busy market place it is hard to get noticed. TheSOSGame appeared in the Australian top 100 Free Board Games for a bit and then fell out (got up to 89). But I seem to have struck a cord with the Turkish market and am current the 6th most popular Free Board Game (and 5th Most Popular free family game). No idea why Turkey is working for me (also Greece is doing ok). But it is interesting to see what happens when you get in a top 100 and stay there. There is a positive feedback loop where you ranking seems to drive more users your way which then drives your ranking higher. The problem seems to be just getting in the top 100 in the first place. If you can get in and it sticks... then you can propel your way up quite quickly. The size of the Store seems to be a big factor for me. The Australian store is one of the "so called Big 8" and thus is harder to keep in but the Turkish store (I am guessing) is smaller and easier to progress. Also sitting at number 70-73 in the Canadian App Store for free Board games. (Love MajicRank for determining ranking across the world)
With the release of the 1.1 version, you get put back in the recently released list and thus get a little bump in customers. I had a look at my app and it was way way down on the list. There where literally dozens and dozens of the spam apps in the list... (of the Peg and Reversii variety plus lots of other new ones.) Apple has to take a stand on this as it is just bloating the store. I have another idea about restricting the spam apps. You could have a limit on the number of apps a single developer can have. Or limit the number of new or updated apps per month ... anything to stop the flood!!!!