By Quick answer: What is the average app rating on the Play Store?
- Overall — mean 4.27, median 4.34 (1,934 apps).
- Highest — Health & Fitness 4.64, word games 4.52.
- Lowest — educational games 3.80, comics 3.97.
- Games vs apps — 4.21 vs 4.31 mean.
- Good rating — 4.3+ is typical for featured apps; aim for your category's median.
Key takeaways
- Judge your rating against your category, not the store average.
- Categories with demanding, social or ad-heavy experiences score lower.
- Apps with more ratings tend to score higher, not lower.
- Apps without ads or in-app purchases rated slightly higher.
- A rating below 4.0 puts you in the bottom fifth of featured apps.
"Is 4.2 a good rating?" depends entirely on what your app does. We read the public listings of 1,986 apps featured on Google Play India on 23 October 20261 and compared the ratings of the 1,934 that had one. The overall picture: ratings cluster high, and categories differ in ways that tell you what users find hard to forgive.
- Mean rating, 1,934 apps
- 4.27
- Highest category mean (Health & Fitness)
- 4.64
- Lowest category mean (educational games)
- 3.80
Ratings by category
| Category | Apps | Mean | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health & Fitness | 46 | 4.64 | 4.73 |
| Word (games) | 60 | 4.52 | 4.55 |
| Travel & Local | 69 | 4.45 | 4.55 |
| Auto & Vehicles | 30 | 4.45 | 4.54 |
| Video Players & Editors | 30 | 4.43 | 4.40 |
| Business | 36 | 4.41 | 4.46 |
| Education | 61 | 4.38 | 4.44 |
| Productivity | 48 | 4.37 | 4.50 |
| Food & Drink | 46 | 4.35 | 4.51 |
| House & Home | 47 | 4.35 | 4.40 |
| Puzzle (games) | 59 | 4.35 | 4.41 |
| Finance | 34 | 4.34 | 4.43 |
| Casual (games) | 71 | 4.33 | 4.32 |
| Adventure (games) | 57 | 4.33 | 4.31 |
| Beauty | 27 | 4.33 | 4.40 |
| Photography | 49 | 4.32 | 4.35 |
| Maps & Navigation | 54 | 4.31 | 4.49 |
| Weather | 35 | 4.31 | 4.36 |
| Shopping | 59 | 4.30 | 4.42 |
| Music & Audio | 42 | 4.30 | 4.35 |
| Sports (apps and games) | 80 | 4.29 | 4.35 |
| Parenting | 25 | 4.29 | 4.33 |
| Art & Design | 35 | 4.28 | 4.34 |
| Events | 27 | 4.25 | 4.39 |
| Simulation (games) | 45 | 4.25 | 4.27 |
| Action (games) | 78 | 4.23 | 4.27 |
| Arcade (games) | 59 | 4.23 | 4.28 |
| Card (games) | 45 | 4.23 | 4.27 |
| Role Playing (games) | 67 | 4.22 | 4.26 |
| Books & Reference | 42 | 4.22 | 4.39 |
| Entertainment | 39 | 4.20 | 4.28 |
| Racing (games) | 49 | 4.16 | 4.23 |
| Strategy (games) | 61 | 4.10 | 4.24 |
| Music (games) | 41 | 4.10 | 4.17 |
| Communication | 64 | 4.07 | 4.15 |
| Trivia (games) | 25 | 4.07 | 4.21 |
| Social | 36 | 4.06 | 4.11 |
| Board (games) | 42 | 4.01 | 3.98 |
| Comics | 33 | 3.97 | 3.96 |
| Educational (games) | 61 | 3.80 | 3.81 |
What separates high and low scorers
These are our interpretations of the pattern — plausible explanations, not tested causes.
Clear, personal progress scores well
Health & Fitness and word games give users visible progress and few surprises — and the highest ratings.
Utility you rely on
Travel, auto, video tools and business apps solve a specific job; when they work, users reward them.
Social and communication suffer
Spam, moderation, bugs across devices and policy changes generate frustrated reviews.
Kids' and educational games trail
Ads, aggressive paywalls and parents reviewing on children's behalf weigh down ratings.
Patterns across the whole sample
| Comparison | Median rating |
|---|---|
| Non-game apps vs games | 4.40 vs 4.27 |
| Without ads vs with ads | 4.38 vs 4.31 |
| Without in-app purchases vs with | 4.43 vs 4.31 |
| 10M+ ratings vs fewer than 10,000 | 4.42 vs 4.15 |
Google weights recent reviews more heavily in the Play rating2, so ratings respond to recent updates — good or bad. Asking at the right moment matters: Google's in-app review API lets users rate without leaving the app3. See how to get more app reviews.
Limits
- Featured apps are popular, established apps; the long tail rates lower
- One snapshot on one day; ratings change continuously
- Category is the developer's chosen Play category
- Differences between nearby categories are small and may not be meaningful
Key terms, defined
Mean — the arithmetic average. Median — the middle value. Play rating — Google's star score, weighted toward recent reviews. Featured app — an app shown on a store category page. In-app review — a prompt to rate inside the app.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good app rating on Google Play?
Among featured apps on Google Play India, the median was 4.34 and 80% rated 4.0 or higher. A good target is at or above your category's median — for most categories, about 4.3 to 4.5.
Which app categories have the highest ratings?
In our sample, Health & Fitness (mean 4.64), word games (4.52), Travel & Local (4.45), Auto & Vehicles (4.45) and Video Players & Editors (4.43) scored highest.
Which categories have the lowest ratings?
Educational games (3.80), comics (3.97), board games (4.01), social apps (4.06), trivia games (4.07) and communication apps (4.07) scored lowest among categories with at least 25 apps.
Do games get lower ratings than apps?
Slightly. Games averaged 4.21 (median 4.27) versus 4.31 (median 4.40) for non-game apps.
Do ads lower app ratings?
Apps with ads had a median rating of 4.31 versus 4.38 without ads; apps with in-app purchases 4.31 versus 4.43 without. These are associations, not proof that ads cause lower ratings.
How was this data collected?
We read the public Google Play listings of 1,986 apps featured on Google Play India's front page and 50 category pages on 23 October 2026; 1,934 had a rating.
Sources
- Google Play (India store) — public app listings and category pages, collected 23 October 2026
- Google Play Console Help — Ratings and reviews on the Play Store
- Android Developers — In-app reviews
- Checked October 23, 2026. Figures that change — fees, salaries, prices — are reviewed every six months; if something is out of date, tell us.
Where to go from here
- Google Play India statistics — the full study
- How to get more app reviews — move your number
- Original dataPlay Store statistics: we analysed 1,986 apps featured on Google Play India — here's what they have in commonPlay Store statistics from our analysis of 1,986 apps on Google Play India: ratings, installs, ads, in-app purchases, update frequency and app age.
- Original dataApp subscription pricing in India: what the in-app purchase price ranges of 1,366 top Google Play apps revealApp subscription and in-app purchase pricing in India from 1,366 top Google Play apps: entry prices, top-tier prices, common price points and category ranges.
- App marketing & ASOApp retention rate benchmarks by category — and how to read your own numbersApp retention rate benchmarks by category — day 1, day 7 and day 30 ranges compiled from public industry roundups — plus how to measure and improve your own.
- Original dataApp retention in India: what published install and retention data says about how long Indian users keep appsApp retention in India from published data: day-1 and day-30 retention by category, the 2026 drop in shopping app retention, and what it means for app teams.
- Original dataAverage screen time in 2026: how long people spend online, in India and worldwide, and what research says it doesThe average online adult spends about 33½ hours a week on online media, 18½ on social and video feeds; Indians average five hours a day on phones. The data.
- Original dataIndian app statistics 2026: subscribers, broadband, UPI, installs, startups and what top apps look likeIndian app statistics for 2026 from official and public data: 1.35 billion telecom subscribers, 24 billion UPI payments a month and top-app benchmarks.
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