Update: As reported by AppFigures, Apple has since acknowledged this to be an error and is restoring all reviews.
In an odd move, Apple appears to have deleted over 22 million app reviews - or 35 per cent of the total reviews - from over 300 apps from the App Store.
As reported by AppFigures, something similar happened back in December 2017.
That was thought that was a bug but AppFigures CEO Ariel Michaeli commented in a blog post, this “ feels a little different.”
And, like that, they’ve gone
The deletion occurred between 23-24 October and impacted a large range of developers including Google, Microsoft, Nike, SEGA, Disney and Ketchapp.
It’s also unclear if there’s any pattern to the move.
For example, Hulu lost 95 per cent of its ratings in the US, while Dropbox lost about 85 per cent of its US ratings.
In terms of territories impacted, 10 million US reviews have disappeared, but all 155 countries Apple supports have been hit to some degree.
Obviously this could just be a horrible but reversible bug but as yet there’s no comment from Apple.
