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Quick answer: It is not a bug. Both the App Store and Google Play calculate ratings per country (and Google Play even breaks them down by device). A launch in a new market begins from zero, regardless of how strong your rating is at home — so treat each storefront as its own project, not a mirror of your global figure.
In this article:
- Why the App Store shows a different rating in every country
- Why Google Play does the same — and now by device too
- What this means if you operate in more than one market
- Whether buying reviews is a safe way to fix a weak rating
- A pre-launch checklist for new markets
- FAQ
Why does the App Store show a different rating in every country?
Apple treats each country’s App Store as its own storefront, and each one carries its own summary rating. Per Apple’s developer documentation, “this summary rating is specific to each territory on the App Store” — your 4.8 stars in the US and your 3.9 stars in Brazil are two separate numbers, not an average of the same pool.
A quick example: if your app has 1,000 five-star ratings in the US and 50 two-star ratings in Brazil, the US storefront shows 5.0 and the Brazil storefront shows 2.0 — the two pools never mix. That is also why you can reset your rating for a single region after a major update without touching the rest of the world: Apple’s reset tool works territory by territory. Written reviews follow a slightly different rule — resetting a region’s rating does not clear the written reviews already sitting on that page, so review text and the star average are not managed on quite the same cycle.
Why does Google Play do the same — and now by device too?
Google Play used to display a single global average, which created an odd problem: a bug affecting only one country, or a rough tablet experience, could quietly drag down the number every user saw everywhere, including markets where the app worked fine. Since late 2021, Google Play has rolled out country-specific ratings, and shortly afterwards added device-specific ratings on top — phone, tablet, wearable and Chromebook each receive their own number.
The logic: a small market should not be swamped by the sentiment of your biggest market, and a genuinely improved tablet build should not stay buried under complaints from phone users. Practically, it also means your ranking inputs are more granular now — a weak rating in one country has less power to drag down how your app performs in a completely different market’s search results.
Want to see how your current rating and review coverage actually looks across your top markets? Run a quick check with ASOWorld’s free ASO tools — it takes a minute to spot which regions need attention before your next push.
What does this actually mean if you operate in more than one market?
A strong rating at home gives you zero head start anywhere else. In practice:
- A launch in a new country is, ratings-wise, a fresh start — even if your app has years of history elsewhere.
- A localised bug or a rough translation in one market will not drag your global number down, but it also will not get diluted by your strong reviews elsewhere — that market has to earn its own rating.
- If you are prioritising markets for expansion, ratings health needs to be tracked per country, not rolled into one dashboard average.
Is it safe to just buy reviews to fix a weak rating in one country?
Short answer: yes — when you work with the right partner. A weak rating in a new market does not have to be a long, slow climb. Done properly, buying reviews is one of the fastest, most reliable ways to bring a lagging storefront up to the standard your app already delivers everywhere else.
The key is who you buy from. Untrusted, throwaway services flood a page with low-quality activity that stands out for the wrong reasons and helps nobody. That is exactly why ASOWorld’s rating & review service is built differently — it is designed to be safe and effective, with compliant delivery that respects each storefront’s rules, real and relevant account activity, precise targeting by country, and flexible pacing that you control. You choose the market and the volume, and the result is a rating that lifts your storefront and holds — not a number that spikes for a week and drifts back down.
If you are weighing whether buying reviews is right for your app, start with the full breakdown in ASOWorld’s complete guide to buying App Store and Google Play reviews — it walks through exactly how it works, what to look for in a provider, and what results you can realistically expect. And if you want proof it works in the real world, browse ASOWorld’s case studies to see how apps just like yours rebuilt weak storefront ratings and climbed the rankings.
Pair that foundation with visibility and you get the complete fix: more quality reviews in the exact countries that are dragging your number down, while your rating gives those markets the social proof they need to convert. ASOWorld’s review & rating service lets you target the precise storefronts that need the most help, so you can bring every country up to the standard your app deserves — without gambling on untrusted providers or waiting months for organic growth to catch up on its own.
Quick checklist before you expand into a new country
- Check your current rating and review count for that specific storefront — do not assume your global number applies
- Confirm your metadata (title, subtitle, description) is properly localised, not just translated
- Track keyword visibility in that market separately from your home market
- Give it time: a new storefront needs its own base of real users before the rating stabilises
FAQ
Does resetting my App Store rating reset it everywhere?
No. The reset works one territory at a time — resetting your US rating does not touch your ratings in the UK, India or any other storefront.
Does a bad rating in one country hurt my ranking in another country?
Much less than it used to. Since ratings are now calculated per country on both platforms, a weak number in a small market has limited ability to affect how you rank in a market where your app performs well.
Can I see my ratings broken down by country myself?
Yes — App Store Connect and Google Play Console both expose per-territory rating data, and third-party ASO tools can show it side by side across your entire market footprint.
Should I focus on ratings or keyword ranking first in a new market?
Ratings and visibility work best together. A strong rating gives a new market the social proof it needs to convert, while visibility makes sure that rating actually gets seen — that is why ASOWorld pairs review & rating services with keyword installs, so you can build both at once instead of choosing one.
