Storeboard/Blog/Countries to localize for

10 App Store countries where top apps localize their screenshots

Localization 14 October 2026 · 7 min read

"Which countries should I localize my app for?" usually gets answered with market size. This list answers a different question: where are your competitors already speaking the shopper's language? That's where English screenshots cost you the most taps. The numbers come from our own sweep of 155 top free iPhone apps across 37 App Store countries in October 2026.

How we ranked them

We took the US Top Free charts in 12 categories (ranks 1 to 10 and 91 to 100), kept the 155 apps sold in at least 10 non-English countries, and checked what each one shows in every non-English storefront: its own name, description and screenshots, or the English fallback. Countries are ranked by the share of those apps with screenshots made for that country, with the description share as the tie-breaker. English-speaking storefronts (UK, Australia, Canada, India) aren't ranked, because English is the right answer there. The full method and data are on the study page.

The ranking

1. Spain: 55% have their own screenshots

Language: Spanish (Spain). Own description: 64% of 153 apps. Own screenshots: 55%. Spain and Mexico are separate localizations in App Store Connect (Spanish (Spain) and Spanish (Mexico)), so one translation can serve both only if you add it to both. Have a native speaker check that the words you use read naturally in each.

2. Mexico: 55% have their own screenshots

Language: Spanish (Mexico). Own description: 64% of 154 apps. Own screenshots: 55%. The biggest Spanish-speaking App Store we checked behaves exactly like Spain: more than half the apps sold there show screenshots made for it. If you translate for Spain, adding the Mexico localization is mostly copy and paste plus a read-through.

3. France: 55% have their own screenshots

Language: French. Own description: 64% of 151 apps. Own screenshots: 55%. French runs noticeably longer than English, so captions that fit on two lines in English often need three. Check every screenshot at its exported size, not just the first.

4. Germany: 53% have their own screenshots

Language: German. Own description: 63% of 153 apps. Own screenshots: 53%. German compound words are long and don't hyphenate the way you'd hope in a big caption. Short, punchy German beats a literal translation of an English sentence.

5. Brazil: 50% have their own screenshots

Language: Portuguese (Brazil). Own description: 58% of 153 apps. Own screenshots: 50%. Brazil and Portugal are separate localizations too, and the vocabulary differs enough that Brazilian shoppers notice European Portuguese (and the other way round).

6. Portugal: 50% have their own screenshots

Language: Portuguese (Portugal). Own description: 58% of 152 apps. Own screenshots: 50%. Half the apps sold here localize their screenshots, the same as Brazil. If you've done Brazil, Portugal is a review job, not a new translation.

7. Japan: 48% have their own screenshots

Language: Japanese. Own description: 58% of 150 apps. Own screenshots: 48%. Japanese has no spaces between words, so captions can break in awkward places. Look at every line break in the export; a caption that wraps mid-word reads as careless.

8. Italy: 46% have their own screenshots

Language: Italian. Own description: 58% of 153 apps. Own screenshots: 46%. Just under half localize. Italian captions tend to run long, like French and Spanish, so leave room in the design.

9. South Korea: 40% have their own screenshots

Language: Korean. Own description: 51% of 144 apps. Own screenshots: 40%. Four in ten apps sold in South Korea show Korean screenshots. Korean text is usually compact, so it rarely breaks a layout that works in English.

10. Netherlands: 37% have their own screenshots

Language: Dutch. Own description: 48% of 152 apps. Own screenshots: 37%. Fewer than four in ten localize here, so a Dutch set still stands out against most of the field.

The other end: where hardly anyone localizes

The bottom of the list matters too, for the opposite reason. Where almost nobody localizes, a translated set doesn't just catch up, it stands out:

• Croatia: 12% own screenshots, 19% own description
• Slovakia: 13% own screenshots, 17% own description
• Israel: 17% own screenshots, 20% own description
• Czechia: 19% own screenshots, 27% own description
• Hungary: 20% own screenshots, 25% own description

These are smaller markets, so the absolute payoff is smaller. But if your app already does well in a neighbouring country, they're a cheap way to look like the only app that bothered.

What to do with this list

1. Start with your metadata, not your screenshots. The name, subtitle and keyword field are what Apple indexes for search in each localization; screenshots are what converts once someone finds you. Translating the text first gets you found. Which languages pay back, and in what order.
2. Then localize the first three screenshots for the countries above where you already get impressions. App Analytics shows impressions by territory, so you're not guessing.
3. Check every export. Long German words, French run-ons and Japanese line breaks are where translated screenshots go wrong. When localized screenshots are worth it, and what breaks.
4. See what you're showing now. The free ASO review checks all 37 countries for your app in about a minute: which ones get your own copy and which get English.

FAQ

Keep reading