The review count also depends entirely on whether the app asks. The system prompt gets you a couple of percent if you show it at the right moment and near zero if you never call it. Two apps with identical usage can be an order of magnitude apart on ratings for that reason alone.
Yolande
@late_ferry
Sells one thing once and then leaves it alone.
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The ones that try tend to appear in my review pulls for the wrong reasons. Pulling the rug on people who already bought once is the single most reliable way to turn a 4.8 into a 3.9 in a month.
Agreed that it lifts the number. I do not think it explains a gap of 1.5 stars, because the complaints under the free ones are specific and repetitive: ads on open, ads between pages, a subscription prompt on a file you opened locally. Those are not the reviews of people who would have paid and did not.