I got my Highlighter Extension a Featured badge by doing something surprisingly simple: I just asked for it.

The result? My daily installs roughly doubled. It took about 2–3 days (people report anything from a few days to a month).

You get a Featured badge on your listing page and in search results. It's assigned after a manual review by Google.
Since it shows up in Chrome Web Store search results, your extension looks more credible to people browsing for something like it.
I'd like to believe featuring also helps with Google search rankings, but possibly that's just wishful thinking on my part.

Google's page explaining all this: Discovery on the Chrome Web Store.

The hardest part is finding the right form. Here it is: Chrome Web Store One Stop Support

Pick:

“I want to nominate my extension to receive a Featured badge and be eligible for merchandising”

After that, you fill out a short form: what the extension does, who it’s for, and a few example use cases.

Nothing exotic here. Just make a decent extension and make the listing look like you put in some effort.

A solid store listing: clear title and description, decent screenshots—nothing fancy required.
A marquee promo image (1400×560) in your Store Listing on the Chrome Web Store Developer Dashboard.
No policy violations or paywalls for core functionality: your extension just needs to behave.

If you have an extension that's already production-ready, I'd recommend trying this — it's a small, low-effort boost.

Have you tried nominating an extension for the Featured badge? Did it work? How long did it take? Did it move the needle for installs?

How to get your Chrome Web Store extension featured and double your installs (by just asking nicely)