App Reputation Benchmarks 2025
The brutal truth about app reviews, ratings, and what users actually think about your products — across all major industries.
Overview snapshot
3.88 ⭐
Average rating across all industries
14%
Average reply rate (yes, that bad)
5B+
Reviews analyzed across 15 categories
Key findings
The platform gap
Google Play apps get 4.3x more reviews than App Store. If you're only monitoring iOS reviews, you're missing most of the feedback.manage the massive scale of player feedback, but never lose the human touch.
The reply effect
Entertainment apps see a 2.1-star improvement when they respond to reviews, while Social apps gain almost nothing (-0.001). Your industry matters!
Response time crisis
Tools & Utilities on App Store take an average of 11 YEARS to respond to reviews. Yes, years. Lots of apps have been abandoned completely.
Why read the report?
Beat your competition
Get industry-specific benchmarks to see exactly how your app's reputation stacks up against competitors. Find the gaps they're missing.
Fix your reply strategy
Discover which reviews need responses and how different reply strategies affect your ratings. Stop wasting time on meaningless engagements.
Boost your ratings
Learn which approaches move the needle on your app's ratings, based on real data from top apps across both Google Play and App Store platforms.
Key industry benchmarks
Gaming
Gaming developers live in parallel universes when it comes to customer service. Trivia game makers respond to users, while Action game developers might as well be playing dead.
- Trivia games: 31.6% reply rate vs. Action games: 0.97%
- iOS gamers give good stars (4.30★) but write harsh reviews (3.63★)
- Android gamers are more consistent between stars (4.16★) and reviews (4.07★)
Finance
When money's involved, developers suddenly find their keyboard skills. Finance apps are the customer service champions with responses that genuinely improve ratings.
- 70.3% response rate to negative reviews
- Google Play: 23-hour response time vs. App Store: 113 hours
- 1.21 reply effect on Google Play — highest positive impact of any category
Shopping
Retail apps have collectively decided that customer feedback isn't worth their time. Even worse, when shopping apps do respond on iOS, they make things worse!
- Abysmal 6.9% reply rate on App Store
- Negative reply effect of -0.08 on iOS (responses hurt ratings)
- 108-hour average response time when they do bother
Health & Sports
Health & Sports apps are the golden children of the app world with stellar ratings and surprisingly responsive support on iOS.
- Highest ratings across platforms: 4.72★ average
- 57% response rate to 1-star reviews on iOS
- Category-leading sentiment score of 0.61 on Google Play
Entertainment
Entertainment apps take the celebrity approach to feedback — they know you're watching, but they're too important to respond. Yet when they do, it makes a massive impact.
- Just 3.3% reply rate on App Store — lowest of any category
- Astronomical 2.11 reply effect — highest positive impact when they do respond
- 77-hour response time (at least they're somewhat quick when they bother)
FAQ
What is App Reputation management?
App reputation management involves monitoring how your app is perceived by users. It covers user feedback, ratings, and reviews across app stores.
How can I use AppFollow to improve my app reputation?
With AppFollow, you can track your app's reputation, user feedback, and sentiment. Automate responding to reviews, identify bottlenecks, and get AI to speed up the process even more.
What are the most important metrics to track?
Separate star and review scores, sentiment score, featured review score, response rate, and response speed, among others.
How should I use this report?
Keep the report at hand to identify areas for improvement and potential issues in your industry. For instance, the top benchmark score in the Gaming industry is higher than it would be in Shopping. Use the right KPis in your work and respond to user reviews diligently.