Predicting App Popularity: What Percentage of Users Submit a Review?

[coip]

I am wondering if the number of reviews is a good indication of how popular an app is, or if it varies a lot by genre (i.e., the type of app).

I was browsing the store today, interested in N.O.V.A 3, which seems like a pretty big release: a Gameloft game with killer graphics, Wi-Fi multiplayer, and Xbox achievements. It's been out for a few weeks now but it only has 76 reviews, which seems embarrassingly low. How many total downloads (i.e., purchases) do you think it has made? I'm worried Gameloft is spending all this money developing high end games and if they're only selling a few hundred copies of it at $6.99, they're losing a ton of cash, I'm sure. I'm sure the price is a deterrent for some, but even the more reasonably priced NBA Jam at $2.99 only has about twice as many reviews at 151.

Perhaps some developers on here have insight into what percentage of downloads results in a review.

 

[chyrol]

Reviews seems to be region locked, here there are only 7 for this game. Maybe it's that only small percentage of people actually cares to write a review. I'd also like to hear some dev's opinion on this.

 

[Roach26]

I downloaded N.O.V.A 3 on my phone but didn't write a review. So I'm going to assume there's alot more people like me who downloaded the game and didn't write a review...

 

[coip]

Reviews seems to be region locked, here there are only 7 for this game. Maybe it's that only small percentage of people actually cares to write a review. I'd also like to hear some dev's opinion on this.

Interesting that they are region locked. I guess that makes sense, but often I see reviews written in other languages and just assumed it was global, but I guess all that means is the U.S. is diverse, which is nice too.

But, yeah, I'd still like to hear from developers on here about what percentage of downloads results in a review.

 

[diavol]

I try to review every app that I download.. In Croatian region max reviews for one app is 200, I think and thats too bad that reviews are region locked

 

[Philippe Maes]

My app has 10.000+ downloads and only has 150 reviews or so (al regions together).

 

[Jonathan Piferrer]

i Try to review ALL my apps... i guess it helps other users and developers (if the read the review... i guess they not... :-( )

 

[Peter Juras]

i Try to review ALL my apps... i guess it helps other users and developers (if the read the review... i guess they not... :-( )

I think every dev reads his reviews. They are even aggregated in the developer console and automatically translated if you wish.

I think the big problem is that devs cannot respond to these reviews. There are so much weird reviews like: "My phone is not turning on", "Windows Phone sucks" that have nothing to do with the app itself :/

 

[coip]

My app has 10.000+ downloads and only has 150 reviews or so (al regions together).

Interesting. So you're getting a 1.5% 'review rate'. Any other developers out there that can chime in?

 

[Peter Juras]

Interesting. So you're getting a 1.5% 'review rate'. Any other developers out there that can chime in?

My app lockslides got about 7k downloads and 57 reviews (all markets). This means only 0.8% reviewed the app.

Two notes:

• I think downloaded updates show up as "downloads" in the statistics
• I have no popup or something like that to engage users into writing reviews

 

[coip]

My app lockslides got about 7k downloads and 57 reviews (all markets). This means only 0.8% reviewed the app.

Two notes:

• I think downloaded updates show up as "downloads" in the statistics
• I have no popup or something like that to engage users into writing reviews

So we've got 0.8% to 1.5% for two apps reporting in. Anyone else? This is interesting. I thought it would be higher than that.

 

[diapers]

Apps with a high number of reviews nag users to review. The number of reviews is not a good metric, also reviews are per region. I always go to the us marketplace site to get a good indication about an app

 

[Mario185]

My app Countdown has over 17k downloads and "only" 419 reviews (all markets togehter)
And in each country it is different if the people write a lot of reviews or not
e.g. In USA and germany i got quite the same number of downloads but in USA i got 64 and in germany 140 reviews so more than the double.

 

[coip]

My app Countdown has over 17k downloads and "only" 419 reviews (all markets togehter)
And in each country it is different if the people write a lot of reviews or not
e.g. In USA and germany i got quite the same number of downloads but in USA i got 64 and in germany 140 reviews so more than the double.

Okay, so you're at about 2.4% for a review rate. And, yes, that makes sense that apps that nag users to write reviews would have higher review counts, so that is something to consider too. Perhaps I'm overlooking something simple, but is there no way to tell how many downloads an app has (I mean, for a normal customer, rather than the developer)?