Recently, Apple has significantly reduced the number of ratings in its mobile app store. We are talking about the removal of 22 million reviews.
According to the analytical company AppFigures, the cuts affected 300 applications from 200 developers, including Google, Microsoft, SEGA, Disney, Ketchapp and many others. From October 22 to October 24, they collectively lost 35% of their ratings.
Cumulative drop in reviews of applications affected by this
Some of the deletions were affected to a lesser extent, others – to a greater extent.
For example, the subscription service Hulu lost 95% of ratings, and the game Solitare — about 86% of those previously left.
AppFigures talked to some developers who lost their grades. Some of them believe that this is just a mistake. Others suggest that Apple is cleaning the App Store from markups. However, all respondents deny that they have ever bought reviews and ratings.
Not only positive, but also negative ratings were removed. For example, the number of ratings with one star dropped by 30%, and with two stars — by 36%. The number of ratings with five stars decreased by about the same percentage.
Apple itself has not yet commented on what happened.
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