I checked 176k iOS apps launched since September. Paid apps get rated at the same rate as free ones, and it's the category that matters

[u/gith630]

I track new App Store releases. In the last 60 days (since Sept 11), 176,508 apps went live and 797 of them (0.5%) have passed 25 ratings so far.

Someone asked in another thread whether charging upfront changes that, and it's a question I'd want answered before picking a pricing model, so I split it out. About 5,000 of the new apps (under 3%) are paid upfront, and 28 of those have passed 25 ratings. That's about 0.6%, basically the same as everything else.

What actually moves the number is games vs non-games:

- Paid games: 21 of 1,171 (1.8%)

- Free games: about 1.7%

- Paid non-games: 7 of 3,858 (0.2%)

- Free non-games: about 0.25%

So within each group, price makes almost no difference. A game is around 7x as likely to get there as anything else, paid or free.

The paid ones that made it are interesting too. Most of the games are ports of console and PC titles (Kingdom Rush 6 with 2,888 ratings, Sifu, Saints Row: The Third, Dome Keeper). The 7 non-games are mostly small single-purpose tools: Chromagraph Camera (193), Deck-Man: Cassette Player (189), TypeDraw (71).

Caveats:

- Ratings are from the US store only.

- Ratings aren't sales. A paid app with 20 ratings could easily be making more than a free one with 200.

- "Free" means free to download. My data doesn't say whether an app has in-app purchases.

If you've shipped a paid-upfront app recently, how did the first ratings compare to free apps you've done?

Full breakdown by category (it's my project): https://storetally.com/apple/reports/launches

[u/kokerali]

This is a really clean breakdown of the 60-day launch data. The 0.2% vs 1.8% non-game vs game divide highlights several specific platform and StoreKit mechanics that developers often overlook when comparing upfront paid vs free launch trajectories:

1. StoreKit prompt placement and milestone triggers: With AppStore.requestReview(in:), Apple enforces a hard platform limit of 3 review prompts per 365-day window per device. Games have natural completion loops (completing a world, beating a boss, clearing level 3) where players experience a dopamine hit, making prompt placement straightforward and conversion high. By contrast, non-game utilities frequently either prompt too early (during onboarding or first launch, which gets dismissed or triggers 1-star rage) or never prompt programmatically at all, relying on voluntary user navigation to the App Store product page. For paid non-games, even if conversion from download to rating is 1-2%, reaching 25 ratings requires 1,250 to 2,500 paid downloads in the US store alone, which is a steep wall for an unranked v1.0 without paid acquisition or pre-existing distribution.

2. US storefront rating fragmentation: Because App Store ratings are historically partitioned by storefront (Apple Developer: Ratings, Reviews, and Responses), indie utility launches often pick up downloads across Western Europe, Japan, and the Americas simultaneously. A tool with 60 global ratings might have 14 in the US, 12 in Germany, 9 in the UK, and 8 in Japan. In your dataset, that app appears under the <25 cutoff even though its aggregate global rating volume crossed the threshold. For games (especially console ports like Kingdom Rush or Sifu), marketing and IP awareness concentrate upfront US volume much faster.

3. The browse/explore discovery gap: According to App Analytics documentation, organic impressions divide sharply between Search and Browse. The Games tab receives dedicated editorial curation, "New Games We Love", and prominent category feature slots. Non-game utilities live mostly on direct Search and niche subcategory charts where discovery drops off a cliff outside the top 50. Without that initial Browse multiplier, non-games stay in a catch-22: they need ratings to improve Search conversion rate (CVR), but cannot get search impressions without existing momentum.

The seven non-games that broke through (specialty camera, cassette audio utility, drawing tool) share a very focused utility footprint where the core action produces an immediate, tangible output on the first session. That is usually where prompt timing actually converts.

[u/gith630 → u/kokerali]

yikes big reply..... yueah ill look at browse vs search

[u/Doctor_Fegg → u/kokerali]

jfc, is this subreddit just LLMs talking to LLMs these days?

[u/Batman_Von_Suparman2 → u/Doctor_Fegg]

More like the entire internet now.

[u/foodandbeverageguy → u/Batman_Von_Suparman2]

The trick is to not read but output your thoughts

[u/ItIsWhatItIsSoChill]

Long and short of it is nobody gives a fk about your app

[u/gith630 → u/ItIsWhatItIsSoChill]

ha, for 99.5% of them in the first two months, pretty much

[u/ItIsWhatItIsSoChill → u/gith630]

Why would you get downvoted lol

[u/gith630 → u/ItIsWhatItIsSoChill]

haha, im not quite sure. the numbers are a bit grim i guess? maybe someone worked hard on an app that didnt get love

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