App Store analytics: what Apple and Google show you, and what they leave out
App Store Connect and Google Play Console count what people do: how often your listing is seen, how many download, what they pay, how long they stay. Neither says why. The why is in the reviews, which Apple keeps on a separate page and Google sums up in a few themes for English reviews. This guide maps what each console measures, why it sometimes says there is not enough data, and how to read reviews next to the numbers.
What App Store Connect Analytics measures
Apple groups the figures in four sections, plus an API that delivers them as reports. From Apple's help pages, read October 25, 2026.
| Section | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Acquisition | How often the app is shown and downloaded, and where users come from, including campaign links. Product page tests, custom product pages, in app events and pre-orders sit here too. |
| Monetization | Sales, proceeds, refund rates, subscriptions (starts, renewals, churn, recurring revenue), offers and cohorts. |
| Engagement | How long new users stay, and usage such as sessions and crashes. Some of it counts only users who opted in to share diagnostics. |
| Benchmarks | How your rates compare with a peer group of similar apps. |
What Google Play Console measures
- Store listing performance: acquisitions by traffic source, listing visitors, clicks on Install and the click through rate, with a benchmark against peers when there is enough data.
- Ratings: your Google Play rating, which Google weights toward recent ratings, beside the lifetime average, broken down by country, language, app version, Android version and device.
- Reviews: review summaries with the top positive and critical themes in English reviews, topic benchmarks against peer apps, and how many users changed their rating after they returned, including after a reply.
Sources: Play Console Help on ratings and reviews, read October 25, 2026, Play Console Help on store listing performance
Google goes further on reviews than Apple does. Its summaries still cover only your own app and English reviews, and they name themes without a count or a range you can check.
Why the console goes blank
Apple builds a usage report only when at least five users contributed to it in that day, week or month, and a row in a detailed report needs five or more devices. Some usage figures come only from people who agreed to share diagnostics with developers, so they are a subset of your users from the start. Filter by one country, one device and one week, and a small app falls below the line.
Google groups search terms and campaigns with too few visitors under Other, and shows peer benchmarks only when the peer set has enough data. In both consoles the fix is the same: widen the window or drop a filter.
Sources: Apple, user privacy in report data, Play Console Help on store listing performance
Which question each number answers
Analytics says what changed. Reviews say why, and they are public for your app and every rival.
| Question | Where to look |
|---|---|
| Did downloads fall? | Acquisition in App Store Connect, Grow users in Play Console. |
| Did a new screenshot convert better? | Product page optimization on Apple, store listing experiments on Google. |
| Are new users leaving? | Retention, then the reviews that say they quit and why. |
| Why did the rating drop? | Reviews by version and by theme. The rating says how much; the reviews say what. See the rating drop checklist. |
| What do a rival's users hate? | The rival's public reviews. No console shows another developer's data. |
| What should we build next? | Feature requests and complaints in reviews, counted, beside what retention says about who stays. |
App store analytics tools, sorted by the job they do
- Download and revenue estimates for any app: Sensor Tower, Appfigures and AppTweak model them from chart ranks. They are estimates; your own console has the real figures for your apps.
- Attribution: AppsFlyer and Adjust tie installs to the ad or link that brought them.
- Keywords and listings (ASO): AppTweak and App Radar track search ranks and listing tests.
- Review analysis: Appbot, AppFollow and OneStar read the reviews and sort them into themes. OneStar does no downloads, keywords or revenue. It reads App Store, Google Play and Steam reviews of any app or game, counts what reviewers love, complain about and ask for with a likely range, and opens the reviews behind every number.
For a side by side on price and fit, see OneStar next to Appbot and AppFollow.
What reviews say across public reports today
These figures load from every public OneStar report each hour. They describe the reviewers each report read, which is a sample of each app's users.
Most complained about, as an average share of complaints per report: reliability and sync 17%, gameplay and balance 13%, pricing and value 7%, design and ease of use 7%, features 7%.
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.
A shift like that shows up in no console. Downloads and ratings move after it, if they move at all, and the reviews say which theme drove it.
Reading reviews next to the numbers
Apple keeps the summary rating per country and lets you reset it when you release a version, and you can respond to any review in App Store Connect (Apple). To turn those reviews into shares you can rank, follow how to analyze app reviews. When the rating is what moved, start with the rating drop checklist.
Cite this page: link https://onestar.sh/guides/app-store-analytics 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.
Questions, answered plainly
Is App Store analytics free?
Yes. App Store Connect Analytics comes with every Apple developer account, and Google Play Console's statistics come with every Play developer account. Third party tools add estimates for apps you do not own, attribution and keyword data, and those are paid.
Why does App Store Connect say there is not enough data?
Some usage figures come only from people who agreed to share diagnostics with developers, and Apple builds a usage report only when at least five users contributed to it in that day, week or month. A small or new app, or a narrow filter, falls under that line.
Does App Store Connect Analytics include ratings and reviews?
Not in the Analytics section. Ratings and reviews have their own page in App Store Connect, where the summary rating is kept per country and you can respond to each review. Analytics covers acquisition, sales, subscriptions, retention and usage.
Can I see a competitor's app store analytics?
Not their real downloads or revenue: those stay in the developer's own console. Paid tools estimate them from rankings. A competitor's reviews and ratings are public, though, and say why their users stay or leave.
Is there an API for App Store analytics?
Yes. Apple has the Analytics Reports API for the figures in App Store Connect Analytics, and the App Store Connect API has a customer reviews endpoint. On Google Play, the Developer API returns only reviews from the last 7 days.
More guides
How to analyze App Store and Google Play reviews
Six steps, a spreadsheet version and a worked example on a live report.
Why did my app rating drop? A triage checklist
Five checks in order, the store rules for asking for ratings, and live rating drops.
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.
Your console says what changed. The reviews say why.
Search any App Store or Google Play app and OneStar reads its reviews into one report: what users love, why they leave, what they ask for. 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.