Why Does Apple Delete App Store Reviews? What Our Data Shows

You left a review for an app, came back a week later, and it's gone. Or you're a developer and a batch of glowing reviews has quietly vanished from your product page. App Store reviews do disappear, and the reasons are more specific than "Apple didn't like it".

We've been saving App Store reviews every day and watching which ones vanish. So far we've caught 548 reviews that disappeared after being published. The most surprising finding: 81% of them were 5-star, even though 5-star reviews make up 54% of all the reviews we track.

What we mean by a "deleted" review

A review counts as deleted in our data when it was visible on the US App Store, then disappeared while newer reviews for the same app stayed visible. That second condition matters: reviews also drop off the visible list simply because newer ones push them down, and we don't count those.

Here is how the star ratings of deleted reviews compare with all the reviews we track:

If reviews were removed at random, both charts would look the same. They don't. Glowing reviews are removed far more often than their share would suggest.

Why Apple deletes App Store reviews

Fake and incentivised reviews

This is what the 5-star skew points to. Apple's guidelines forbid buying reviews, rewarding users for them and posting reviews from fake or coordinated accounts. Apple filters for these continuously, and when a batch is identified, the reviews go, often together with the matching star ratings. (See our guide on why App Store ratings disappear.)

Typical signs of a review that's likely to be removed:

• very short, generic praise ("Great app!!! Best ever") posted in bursts;
• many reviews on the same day from new accounts;
• reviews that mention a reward, bonus or coins;
• near-identical wording across several reviews.

Reviews that break the content rules

Apple also removes reviews that contain offensive language, personal information, spam or links, or that aren't about the app at all. These are a minority, and they show up as the 1-star share of deleted reviews (10% in our data).

The reviewer deleted it or their account

Users can delete their own reviews, and deleting an Apple Account removes all its reviews. This explains individual disappearances, not sudden batches.

It was edited

When a user edits a review, the new version replaces the old one. The original text is no longer visible anywhere on the App Store. AppMarketSpy keeps the earlier versions, which is how we can tell an edit apart from a deletion.

Recently deleted reviews

These are the latest reviews we saw disappear from the US App Store:

I'm a user — why was my review removed?

Apple doesn't notify reviewers. If your review vanished, the most common reasons are:

1. it contained a link, contact details or language Apple filters;
2. it was flagged as part of a batch of suspicious reviews for that app (this can catch genuine reviews too);
3. you edited it, so the old version was replaced.

You can write a new review that follows the guidelines; there's no penalty for trying again.

I'm a developer — what should I do?

• Never pay for reviews or reward users for them. That's what produces the 5-star skew above, and removed reviews usually come with removed ratings.
• Ask at the right moment with Apple's own prompt (SKStoreReviewController): after a success, not on first launch.
• Reply to negative reviews. Developer responses are public, and a good reply often leads the user to update their rating.
• Monitor your reviews. If a batch disappears, check whether anyone working on your marketing used review services.

See it live

The deleted reviews page is updated daily with the latest reviews that disappeared and the apps that lost the most. Every app page on AppMarketSpy also shows its own deleted reviews.