How Ratings are Reported in Appfigures

Appfigures pulls ratings data directly from the app stores - ratings metrics, like average rating and counts (for Apple) will match up with what you see in the app stores. We snapshot ratings from the store a handful of times each day, recording the changes. Those changes are reported in the "New" toggle off your Ratings report. You'll also see changes day to day where the total ratings count can increase (or decrease).

How Apple's Ratings Are Reported

Now, the stores do things a little differently:

Apple uses a straightforward lifetime average - every rating counts equally unless you reset ratings for a new version.

Appfigures takes all the new ratings you received for the selected period, multiplies the number of stars by how many ratings you got for each, adds them up, and divides by the total.

Easy math: (Stars × Count) ÷ Total Ratings = Average

This is how your new average is calculated in Appfigures. It’s a snapshot of the ratings that came in during that specific period - not your lifetime rating. Because Appfigures is only looking at the ratings that arrived in that window, this gives you a clear sense of how users are feeling right now.

Google, however, applies a weighted average. New ratings matter more; older ones matter less. Because of this, Google's default metric for ratings are reported in percentages (%), not star counts, like Apple. That means your visible Google Play counts will jump around more when compared to Apple, as you will see those new ratings counts reflect the weighted calculation that Google runs, which is brings us to negative ratings:

Negative Ratings

1. In August of 2019, Google announced it would amend how the average rating would be calculated. Historically, the average rating was the average of all ratings (like Apple). The change now gives more weight to newer ratings, to focus on the newest version and less on outdated ratings of past versions. Ratings that are devalued can be reported as negative ratings, whereas ratings that are more recent can be reported as new, positive reviews.
2. Google and Apple have both been known to go in and "clean up" or remove ratings they believe to be tied to bots. When those are removed, they'll populate as negative numbers in the report. This "clean up" can look a lot like the next instance; however, these removals happen in bulk and can be country-specific. They're not too common, but can happen!
3. If a user updates their Apple rating from one star to another, the original rating will show as a negative in Appfigures, as it's been changed in the store.

For example:

Let's say a user on March 2nd left a ★★ rating. The next day, March 3rd, that same user noticed the app released an update which positively changed their perspective toward the app. So on 3/3, the user changed their rating from a ★★ star to a ★★★★ star. The below example will show how the update is recorded.

March 2nd: 

New ratings:

⭐️⭐️ = 1

Overall ratings:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ = 1

⭐️⭐️⭐️ = 2

⭐️⭐️ = 1

March 3rd

New ratings:

⭐️⭐️ = -1

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️= 1

Overall:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ = 1

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ = 1

⭐️⭐️⭐️ = 2

⭐️⭐️ = -1

Comparing Google Ratings in Appfigures to the Google Developer Console

Google's developer console treats every rating change as a brand-new rating. If a user updates their rating - from, say, ★★ to ★★★★★ - Google's console keeps the initial (now old) rating and the addition of the new one. In Appfigures’, the “New Ratings” column, that shows up as –1 for the removed rating and +1 for the new one. Because we snapshot the ratings, we would remove the updated rating and only report on the new, updated rating.

This, on top of Google's weighted average in the store, means that comparing between the store/Appfigures and Google's developer console is not recommended and ratings counts will not line up.

Updated on: 04/12/2025