How to Nominate an App for App Store Featuring
A Today tab slot is not for sale. Nominate a finished product page, a real reason to feature it now, and the storefronts where the app is actually available.
Quick answer
How do you get featured on the App Store?
You cannot buy an App Store Today tab slot. Nominate the app in App Store Connect with a timely reason, a finished product page, and availability in the storefronts you want considered. For a weekly puzzle tournament, attach an approved in-app event so editors have a story. Apple’s help article recommends at least three weeks of lead time. Featuring stays an editorial decision.
On this page
Sunday Grid is a small puzzle game with one public ritual: a new tournament board every week, same rules, a ranked finish, then the board closes. That is a featuring story. A logo, a keyword list, and a hope that “indie puzzle” is underserved is not. Apple’s editorial team picks what appears on the Today tab, in collections, and as App of the Day or Game of the Day. You do not purchase the slot, and a nomination is not an order form.
The practical path is Featuring Nominations in App Store Connect. Apple’s getting featured page says there is no checklist that guarantees a placement, then lists what the team weighs: the product, the page, and a reason the story is timely. This post is only the nomination. The rest of launch hygiene lives on the App Store launch checklist.
What a nomination actually is
Account Holder, Admin, App Manager, or Marketing can create a nomination. In Apps, open the app, then Featuring, then Nominations. A single nomination starts as a draft you can edit. A CSV import submits immediately and cannot sit as a draft, though you can edit it after it lands in Submitted. Give the draft a name you will recognize in six weeks, such as “Sunday Grid weekly tournament, spring.”
Apple asks you to pick the kind of story. New Content covers new content, offers, or events. App Enhancements covers new features or other significant updates. App Launch covers the launch or pre-order of a new app or game. Sunday Grid’s weekly tournament is New Content once the game is already live. The first public release is App Launch. A new daily challenge mode, if it changes how people play, is an enhancement. Do not file three nominations that describe the same weekend.
Lead time is part of the pitch
The two Apple pages do not use the same minimum. The public featuring overview asks for at least two weeks of notice and says wider consideration is more realistic if you nominate up to three months ahead. The App Store Connect help article is stricter on the operational side: submit as early as you can, with a minimum lead time of three weeks. The date you pick is interpreted in your device’s local time zone. You can choose a specific day or a custom range.
For Sunday Grid, the useful date is the Monday the tournament opens, not the day you hope an editor is free. If the board is not approved, the in-app event is not approved, or the game is missing from the storefronts you named, the date on the form is fiction. Editors cannot feature a product page that is not on that storefront.
Match the nomination type to the tournament
| Nomination type | What you are claiming | Sunday Grid use |
|---|---|---|
| New Content | A new event, offer, or piece of content inside an app that already exists. | The weekly tournament, once the game is on the store and the event is approved or published. |
| App Enhancements | A significant feature or other product change, not a coat of paint. | A new puzzle generator or ranked season, described with the actual behavior. |
| App Launch | A first release or a pre-order, including bringing the app to a new region. | Launch week, or a pre-order if the product page is already the one you want editors to see. |
Pick one nomination type that matches the thing happening on a date, then describe that thing in concrete play, not in adjectives.
Give editors a story they can place
The description should say what changes, why it matters, and how sure you are about the date. “Exciting new content for puzzle fans” is useless. “A seven-day tournament board opens every Monday at 9:00 a.m. Pacific, closes Sunday night, and ranks finish times. The board is the same for every player that week.” That is a story. In-app events are how you hand Apple that story as an object, not a paragraph. If the event is approved or published, attach it. Apple recommends attaching it as early as you can. Events on the nomination are for iPhone and iPad apps. Read how in-app events work before you invent a second calendar inside the nomination text.
You can name up to 10 related apps from the same developer account. Sunday Grid should be one app. A nomination that lists eight reskins of the same board is the opposite of a featuring argument, and it is the pattern guideline 4.3 exists to catch. Supplemental materials are up to five URLs: a one-page rules PDF, a TestFlight public link, press stills. Helpful details are where you mention accessibility, a solo developer, or anything that is true and specific. Priority is your ranking of this nomination against your own plans, not a fee.
The product page has to already be good
Apple lists the product page as its own consideration: screenshots, app previews, description, and ratings and reviews. Sunday Grid’s first screenshot should be the tournament board in progress, with a caption a stranger can read. The second can show how a move scores. The third can show the weekly close. Empty grids and a splash that says “puzzle” waste the only frames a glance will see. Those first three App Store screenshots are the page an editor opens, not a separate marketing project. Subtitle and description should name the weekly tournament in plain language. If the game is only available in two storefronts, the nomination’s country list should not pretend otherwise. Connect preselects countries and localizations from where the app is available. Edit them if the tournament is English-only and you do not want a storefront you have not localized.
If the team wants promotional artwork, Apple emails people with Admin, App Manager, or Marketing roles. That email is a request for assets after you are being considered. It is not something you trigger by cold-emailing a public address. Do not build the nomination around artwork you have not been asked for.
What featuring is not
Search ranking is not featuring. A keyword list does not create a Today story. A pre-order can be featured, and pre-orders can show across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro, but only if you are actually offering a pre-order. Personalized recommendations are a different system, driven by what people have downloaded, and you do not nominate your way into someone’s personal row.
Editors’ Choice is a separate, storefront-specific badge for apps the editors treat as best in class. All apps are eligible for App of the Day or Game of the Day stories, including games that have been out for years. Sunday Grid does not need to be new. It needs a week that is worth pointing at, and a page that shows the game you ship. After a Today placement such as App of the Day, the App Store Connect app can notify you and offer share assets.
Nominate Sunday Grid for the weekly tournament
Do this for one tournament week, not for a vague “please feature us” note. The three-week clock is the help article’s minimum lead time, not a promise that anyone will reply.
Freeze the product page
Open the live Sunday Grid page on a phone signed out of your developer account. The icon, the first three screenshots, the subtitle, and the description must explain the weekly tournament without your commentary. If a screenshot shows a mode that is not in the build, fix the page before you nominate. Editors are looking at the same page customers see.
Put the tournament on the calendar
Create the in-app event for the specific week, with a start and end that match the board. Submit it early enough that it can be approved or published before you attach it. The nomination form can only attach an event in one of those states, and only for an iPhone or iPad app. A sentence in the description is not a substitute for the event record.
Check storefronts and languages
In the nomination, confirm the countries Connect selected are places the game is actually sold and where the tournament copy makes sense. Remove a storefront if the page is still English-only and you do not want that market in the pitch. Add a localization only if that language’s metadata is finished, not if you plan to translate later.
Write the nomination as New Content
Name it after the week. Choose New Content. Describe the board, the open and close, and what a player does. State that this week’s event is the one attached. Add at most five supporting URLs, such as a rules page or a TestFlight link if you want editors to play. Skip the other nine “related apps” slots unless those apps are genuinely part of the same story.
Submit with three weeks or more
Save a draft if the event is not ready. When it is, submit. Apple’s help article asks for a minimum of three weeks. The public featuring page also says two weeks is the floor for notice and that up to three months is wiser for wider consideration. Pick the tournament date, not today. Then leave the page alone unless the date actually moves.
Key takeaways
- Featuring is editorial. A nomination in App Store Connect asks for consideration. It does not sell a Today tab slot.
- Use New Content for Sunday Grid’s weekly tournament, and attach the in-app event once it is approved or published.
- Plan on at least three weeks of lead time from the help article, and longer if you want wider consideration.
- The product page, screenshots, and storefront list have to match the game you are asking them to feature.
- One distinct game beats a pile of related bundle IDs. Ten clone apps is not a featuring strategy.
Frequently asked questions
Can I pay to be featured on the App Store Today tab?
No. Apple’s featuring process is an editorial selection. You submit a nomination in App Store Connect, and the team may consider it alongside the product, the page, and the timing. There is no checkout for App of the Day, Game of the Day, a collection, or an Editors’ Choice badge. Apple Ads can promote an app, including during a pre-order, but that is advertising, not an editorial placement. Anyone offering a guaranteed organic feature for a fee is not describing Apple’s process.
How far ahead should I nominate a weekly tournament?
The App Store Connect help article says to submit as early as you can, with a minimum lead time of three weeks. The getting-featured overview asks for at least two weeks of notice and recommends up to three months when you want wider consideration. For Sunday Grid, tie the date to the Monday the board opens, and have the in-app event approved or published before you attach it. A nomination filed the morning of the tournament does not meet either page’s guidance.
Do I need an in-app event to be considered?
You do not have to attach an event for every nomination. App Launch and App Enhancements exist for releases and product changes that are not events. For a weekly tournament, the event is the cleanest way to show a start, an end, and a reason the story is this week rather than any week. Attach it when it is approved or published. In-app events on a nomination apply to iPhone and iPad apps. The event record still has to be accurate. A fake event will not survive contact with the product page.
What if my puzzle game is only in a few countries?
Nominate the countries where the app is available. Connect fills that list from your availability, and you can edit it. Featuring is localized and curated by region, so a storefront you have not turned on cannot host the story. Do not add countries because a chart looks attractive. If the subtitle and screenshots are only in English, say so in the localization list instead of implying a finished Japanese or German page.
Will changing my keywords get me featured?
No. Keywords help search. Featuring is a human selection of a story, a page, and a product. Sunday Grid gets considered because the tournament is real, the screenshots show it, and the nomination says when it happens. Rewriting the 100-character keyword field the night before does not create that story. If the page is unfinished, fix the screenshots and the description first, then nominate. The launch checklist covers the rest of the listing work this post is not trying to replace.
Keep reading
App Store In-App Events: Limits and Setup
A live language hour inside a tutoring app is an event, not a new binary. Fifteen approved, ten published, ten with overlapping starts. The card and the screenshots are shown to different people.
How Google Play Featuring Actually Works
Play does not sell a featured slot, and it does not publish a nomination form that guarantees one. The listing you ship is what a promotion would use.
App Store Pre-Orders Before Launch Day
A pre-order publishes a limited product page before the binary is public. The screenshots and metadata have to be ready, because that page is what people order from.
The First 3 App Store Screenshots Decide the Tap
Apple search shows up to three frames before anyone opens the page. Play often leads with screenshot one. What each of those slots is for.
App Store Launch Checklist: From Screenshots to First Users
A practical launch plan for indie app developers: get your listing compliant, make screenshots convert, recruit useful early feedback, then improve with evidence instead of post-launch guesswork.
Free tools that help here
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Finish the page editors will actually open
AppGrowthKit turns the real tournament screen into a store-ready screenshot set, so the nomination is not pitching a page that still looks like a prototype.
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