Apple Inc. App Store Algorithm Glitch Breaks Ranked And New App Lists

Apple came under fire by angry developers and users over the weekend for what appeared to be a huge glitch in its App Store algorithm. Instead of displaying a mixture of curated and automatically ranked apps, the iOS software store began showing users multiple versions of similarly named apps and games within various categories such as “new” and “hot.”

One prominent example was seen in one App Store screenshot, which had the game “2048” and countless clones listed one after another. The problem was limited to iOS App Stores in Canada, Spain, the U.K. and several other countries. The U.S. App Store appeared to be unaffected.

While the bug was pointed out by several users on Twitter, it’s not the first time it has popped up in the App Store. In 2013, a similar glitch was posted in Apple’s Radar bug reporting tool in 2013, which Apple responded to, noting that it was a feature that behaved correctly at the time. Phil Schiller, Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing, responded to developer criticisms over the weekend on Twitter and promised to look into the glitch.