Last 30 days2.69 starsaverage in the reviews the report read
Changedown 1.69against the 30 days before
What people complain about and love in 2026
App rating guide
Why did my app rating drop? A triage checklist
Check five things in order: which number moved, whether it lines up with a release, which version the low reviews name, which complaint theme grew, and whether the wave is about something outside the app. Then fix the leading theme, reply where it helps, and ask for ratings at the right moment inside the stores' limits.
First
Which number moved
The App Store rating is per country. Apple keeps a summary rating for each territory, and you can reset it when you release a new version. A reset clears the stars and leaves the written reviews. A drop you see in one country may not exist in another, and a jump after a release may be a reset with nothing fixed.
The Google Play rating leans on recent ratings. Google weights the rating users see toward recent ratings and shows the lifetime average separately. One bad month moves a Play rating faster than it moves an App Store one.
The count and the average are two numbers. When the count falls and the average holds, ratings were removed. When the average falls with a normal count, people are rating lower.
Sources: Apple on ratings, reviews and responses, read October 25, 2026, Play Console Help on ratings and reviews, Apple Developer Forums on disappearing ratings
The checklist
Five checks, in this order
- Line the drop up with your releases. Put the daily average next to your release dates. A drop that starts the day a version ships is about that version. A drop with no release behind it points at a price change, an outage, a policy or news.
- Split the low reviews by version. App Store and Google Play reviews usually carry the app version. If one version holds most of the one and two star reviews, the regression is in it. Play Console breaks ratings down by version, device and Android version too.
- Find the theme that grew. Sort the low reviews of the bad weeks into a fixed set of themes and compare the shares with the weeks before. The theme whose share jumped is the one to fix first. How to analyze app reviews has the method.
- Check whether the wave is about the app. A burst of reviews many times a normal day, all about one event, is a wave: a price rise, an account change, a news story. It still costs stars, but a patch will not end it. The review bomb guide shows the rule OneStar uses to flag one.
- Read the five star reviews of the same weeks. If they changed too (shorter, fewer, or praising something you just removed), the drop is about a change people disliked rather than a bug.
Live
Rating drops in public reports right now
The largest falls in average stars among public OneStar reports, last 30 days against the 30 before, in the reviews each report read. These load each hour; open a report to see which theme moved with it.
Last 30 days2.38 starsaverage in the reviews the report read
Changedown 0.85against the 30 days before
Pokémon GO under Scopely: did players notice the new owner?
Last 30 days2.29 starsaverage in the reviews the report read
Changedown 0.67against the 30 days before
Venmo vs Cash App vs PayPal: where payments go wrong
On Steam a thumbs up counts as five stars and a thumbs down as one, so a game's average reads on the same scale.
A live case: on Sonos, the share of complaints about bad update or redesign rose from 11% to 26% between the report's last two runs, the largest shift among the public reports right now.
Getting it back
What the stores allow, and what works
- Fix the leading theme first, and say so. Name the fix in the release notes and in replies to the reviews that raised it. A rating recovers when new reviews stop naming the problem, so the fix has to come before any prompt for ratings.
- Reply where it can change a mind. On the App Store you can respond to any review, the reviewer is notified and can update it; keep replies respectful, with no personal information or marketing. On Google Play you can post one public reply per review, the reviewer gets a push and an email, and Play Console shows who changed their rating after returning. The reply guide covers the rules for both stores.
- Ask at the right moment, within the limits. Apple allows the rating prompt up to three times in a 365 day period and asks you to request it after a user completes an action, level or task, without interrupting. Google enforces a quota it does not publish, so do not trigger the in app review from a button, and do not ask any question before or while the card shows, such as "Do you like the app?".
- Reset sparingly. Apple recommends using the summary rating reset sparingly. Reset when the old rating describes a problem the new version fixed. A reset over a problem that is still there buys a few weeks at most.
Sources: Apple on ratings, reviews and responses, read October 25, 2026, Android Developers on the in app review API, Play Console Help on ratings and reviews
With OneStar
Checks two to four, done for you
A OneStar report on your app ranks the complaint themes in the reviews it reads with a likely range, shows them over time, and flags days that stand out from a normal one. On Pro it splits each theme by version, and a tracked report alerts you by email or Slack when a theme spikes, the rating drops or a wave starts. It works on a rival's app too, which tells you whether the whole category had a bad month. Start from the app review analyzer.
Cite this page: link https://onestar.sh/guides/app-rating-drop and name OneStar and the date you read it. Figures on this page load from public OneStar reports and the store rules link to Apple and Google. Shares in OneStar reports are of all judged reviewers unless the report says otherwise.
FAQ
Questions, answered plainly
Why did my app rating drop after an update?
Usually because the update broke or removed something people used, and the reviews written that week say what. Split the low reviews by version: if one version holds most of them, read its top complaint theme. If the drop is spread over every version, look for a price change, an outage or news instead.
Should I reset my App Store rating?
Apple lets you reset the summary rating per country when you release a version, and recommends using it sparingly. A reset clears the stars and leaves the written reviews. It helps when the old rating describes a problem the new version fixes. If the problem stays, users write the same reviews again.
How often can I ask users for a rating?
On the App Store, the system prompt can appear up to three times in a 365 day period. Google Play enforces a time bound quota it does not publish, so calling the in app review flow twice in under a month may show nothing, and Google says not to put it behind a button.
Do replies to reviews change the rating?
They can. Apple notifies the reviewer, who can then update the review, and Google notifies the reviewer by push and email. Play Console shows how many users changed their rating after they returned, including after a reply. A reply that names the fix and the version is the one worth writing.
Why did my rating count drop but not the average?
Ratings were removed rather than added. Developers on Apple's forums have reported counts falling after an update with the average unchanged. If the count falls with no release behind it, ask Apple Developer Support before you change anything in the app.
Guides
More guides
How to analyze App Store and Google Play reviews
Six steps, a spreadsheet version and a worked example on a live report.
App Store analytics: what Apple and Google show you, and what they leave out
What App Store Connect and Play Console measure, why they say not enough data, and where reviews fit.
How to analyze competitor app reviews
Five steps, weak spots against category gaps, and a worked example on three note apps.
How to reply to negative app reviews: a template for each complaint
A template per complaint under Google's 350 character cap, the store rules, and live reply rates.
Steam review score explained: what each label needs
The bands behind each label, which reviews count, language scores, and what live games need to move.
How to tell a Steam review bomb from a real problem
Three tells, the rule OneStar uses, and seven games with Steam's own counts.
What a patch did to your Steam reviews
Steam reviews carry no version, so a patch is read through the weeks before and after it.
Find the theme behind the drop in a few minutes.
Search your app and OneStar reads its App Store and Google Play reviews by version and theme, with the reviews behind every number. Run a report free: 3 report runs a month of up to 500 reviews each and 1,500 reviews a month in all. No card needed.