Google play bad rating after 10th december

Since 10th december or the google play update my app rating is going down every day, and I don´t know what is the problem because all of the bad ratings have no comments, the only users that post comments are the ones that give me 5 or 4 stars, but from 3 to 1 I don´t have any comments so the rating is just useless!! I checked my competitors rating and is the same for all of them, all are going down.

Are you getting the same behaviour after the last google play update?

I have EXACTLY same issue. For some reason in last few days I have more than 500 ratings a day with daily avarage ~ 4 stars, in dsahboard see only loads of 5/4 stars, almost no one stars (yet I am receiving them)

Same issue here. Each day the rating goes down 1 decimal number.

The total ratings with one star have doubled in the last 2 weeks.

If your apps are high in rankings - maybe it is some concerted effort by marketers to bring down the competition - but were ratings still being used to rank apps etc. ? Or would just reducing rating be also valuable for indirect impact (as users less likely to download).

Given the money involved in being at top of ranks I would not be surprised if there are outfits-for-hire which do this (if outfits exist to give 5 star ratings, there could be those for giving 1-star to the competitors above you in your niche). And as I pointed out in an earlier thread discussing similar issues - a racket that was attacking other apps would be LESS traceable to the offending app (since only the apps above them in rankings would be attacked … so not enough of a linkage to the app trying to do the manipulation (as opposed to if you are buying 5 star reviews).

I have a couple of low range with 3000 DAU per app - and I don’t see any huge change from usual pattern of ups and downs in the cumulative rating around Dec 10.

This might be part of a new feature rolled out in Google Play. It asks the users to rank an existing installed app so they can provide better recommendations.

One would expect ranking of an existing installed app would have a higher rating than the ones at the frontline on Google Play (that face random keyword searching public).

Since those who already have your app are “screened” in a way i.e. they had to have some interest to install and keep it around on their phone etc. … so likely to have slightly higher rating average than the average public person happening perchance on your Google Play page …

Do you know when it asks to do it? Probably now more unhappy ppl are rating. Ultimately it can lead to better distribution of ratings, but it’s not fair for new apps - cause old apps can have thousands of 5 so they will defend (at least for some time) against bad ratings.

Anyway, i’m experiencing it too. Averages for my new game:

2013-12-07 4.500
2013-12-08 4.636
2013-12-09 4.600
2013-12-10 4.647
2013-12-11 4.600
2013-12-12 4.522
2013-12-13 4.536
2013-12-14 4.474
2013-12-15 4.380

I have noticed an increase in “daily ratings increase” for my apps starting 11th Dec. The effect on overall rating is more or less “none” as the ratings I do receive is in line with my current average (e.g. I receive more of ratings, but same ration of 1 vs 5).

As a user I have not seen any “rate this app” request on any of my devices yet.

I’ve noticed that there is a large rating selecting box now on Google Play (at least on tablets) - it shows empty stars and is below the description. People who want to uninstall the app will probably see it - and maybe rate 1 star before uninstalling… (before most didn’t bother)

I noticed the same thing on my phone a few days ago. The rating box is a lot more prominent now so apps with higher uninstall rates will probably receive more (negative) ratings than before

@Magnesus @moneymike55 That is the dialog I am talking about…

Seems there is new Google Play app being rolled out:

Google Play for Android expected to get new features | Android Atlas - CNET Reviews

or just google 4.5.10: https://www.google.pl/search?q=Google+Play+4.5.10

you can see the screens here:
http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/12/05/download-latest-google-play-store-4-5-10-with-shared-play-store-activity-iap-indicators-and-more/

One change was the bigger rating box on the description, but I think that the box responsible for all this increase in ratings is the “Want quick suggestions?” box that appears on the play store home. On this box you can rate random installed or unistalled apps, but only give stars, you can´t write a comment from here, so is totally useless for developers we can´t know why the user is giving 1, 2, or 3 stars. Also is very easy to give accidental ratings, I tested my self starting with 1 star and oops when I released the finger the app was rated with 1 star and the box show me another random app, so to fix this bad rating I had to search the application on the play store and rate it again with the more safe description box, but do you think that lazy users will do that?

This box will help users to get content that they like, but google play needs to ad a way for prevent accidental ratings and if is a bad rating give the option to write a comment so developers we can fix the issue or defend ourselves through the developer console response system, now my rating is decreasing every day and I don´t know what to do because I don´t have any information. As I said on my first post my competitors are decreasing too some faster than others because have less ratings and the 1 stars madness have more impact on their stats.

Could you record that “feature” and upload it to youtube? Maybe we should spread a word about it, to reddit or some android portals (like Android Police - they always analyze new google play updates).

IMHO everytime user click on any stars, there should be some confirmation dialog. It’s stupid that clicking on star already “commits” your choice.

This is getting everyday worse. :frowning:

Yes! me too… What’s happen?

I already have 4.5.10 on my phone, seems it keeps on asking for stars till you give 4+ and then presents an app similar to one just rated. On the other hand I made * and ** ratings and the dialog to rate yet another app was still there.

that explain the drop in the rankings! this is so unfair for new apps… oh Google i hate you

looking for positives - the rankings will be less prone to “paid 5* reviews”

I am also victim of this. User said excellent in the comment but gave 1 star. Happening with so many apps. Rankings are dropping due to bad ratings. I think it is a bad time to publish new apps/games. Hold on till christmas. Should be fixed by google.