How do I keep a good rating on the app store?

Launch with a low, measured crash rate, monitor stability per version after release, and fix the high-impact and device-specific crashes that drive negative reviews, so crashes do not tank your rating. App store ratings are heavily affected by crashes and bugs (frustrated players leave negative reviews), so protecting your rating means stability. Measure your crash rate on real devices before launch and ensure it is low (launching with a high or unmeasured crash rate is a common mistake that tanks ratings at scale). Monitor stability per version after release with alerts, so a regression or crash wave is caught fast before it damages your rating. Fix the high-impact crashes driving negative reviews (ranked by affected players), and the device-specific crashes hurting your rating among particular users (which you may not see on your hardware). Show fixes via update notes to prompt review revisions. Bugnet measures crash rate per version from real devices, captures crashes with device context and impact ranking, alerts on spikes, and provides a changelog, so you can launch stable, monitor after release, fix the crashes hurting your rating (including device-specific ones), and show the fixes, protecting your app store rating from the crashes that would otherwise tank it.

Why is my app store rating dropping?

Often because crashes or bugs are driving negative reviews, frequently a recently introduced issue (from an update or OS change) hitting many players, or device-specific crashes accumulating. An app store rating drops when players turn negative, and the common fixable cause is technical: a crash spike (an update introduced a crash, or an OS update broke something), a bug hitting many players, lost progress, or device-specific crashes accumulating across your device-diverse audience. To find the cause, check your crash data around when the rating started dropping (did a crash spike or did a release introduce an issue?) and match recent negative review complaints to your captured crashes. If a specific issue shows up in both, it is likely driving the drop. Bugnet captures crashes with per-version and device context and impact ranking, so you can check whether a crash spiked or a release introduced an issue when your rating started dropping, and rank the issues by impact to see which affect the most players (driving the most reviews), turning a mysterious rating drop into a diagnosed cause you can fix, then show the fix and let the rating recover.

Do I need crash reporting for an app store launch?

Yes, crash reporting is essential for an app store launch, because launch surfaces crashes at scale across many devices, and on the app store crashes directly tank your rating, so without crash reporting you are blind to the issues damaging your launch. App store launches expose your game to many devices and players at once, surfacing device-specific and other crashes that testing missed, and these crashes drive the negative reviews that determine your rating in the critical launch window. Without crash reporting, you cannot see these crashes (most players never report, they just leave a one-star review), so they tank your rating while you remain unaware, unable to prioritize or fix. Crash reporting set up before launch makes the launch crashes visible with context and impact ranking, so you can fix the high-impact ones fast (hotfix or roll back) before they damage your rating further. Bugnet provides launch-ready crash reporting, automatic capture with device context, per-version tracking with alerts, and impact ranking, so you can see and fix the crashes your app store launch surfaces across devices, protecting your rating at the most critical moment rather than flying blind while crashes tank it.

Common App Store Mistakes

Quick answer: The biggest app store mistakes are launching unstable, not monitoring after release, and ignoring device-specific crashes, fix these by measuring and monitoring stability across devices.

App store success depends on stability and ratings, and common mistakes undermine both. Here are the most common app store mistakes and how to avoid them.

Launching With a High or Unmeasured Crash Rate

A common app store mistake is launching without knowing your real crash rate, or with a high one, so crashes hit players at scale, tanking your rating in the critical launch window. A high crash rate at launch is a rating disaster.

The fix is measuring your crash rate on real devices before launch and ensuring it is low. Bugnet measures crash rate per version from real devices, so you know your true stability before launching and can drive the crash rate down first, avoiding a launch that tanks your rating with crashes.

Not Monitoring Stability After Release

A second mistake is releasing on the app store and not monitoring stability, so a regression or a device-specific crash wave goes unnoticed while it damages your rating. Without post-release monitoring, app store problems spread unchecked.

The fix is monitoring crash rate per version after release with alerts. Bugnet tracks crash rate per version and alerts on spikes, so a regression or crash wave after an app store release surfaces fast, letting you respond before it tanks your rating.

Ignoring Device-Specific Crashes

A third mistake is ignoring crashes specific to particular devices, which hurt your rating among those users and accumulate into a lower overall score. App store audiences span many devices, and device-specific crashes hit segments you may not see on your hardware.

The fix is capturing crashes with device context to find and fix device-specific issues. Bugnet captures crashes with device context, so you see which devices crash (invisible on your machine) and can fix the device-specific issues hurting your rating among those users, protecting your overall score.

Avoid the big app store mistakes: launching unstable, not monitoring after release, and ignoring device-specific crashes. Measure and monitor stability across devices.