Books & Reference's Negative Review Share Fell From 17.9% to 14.3% Over Six Months

As of 10 October 2026, Books & Reference apps on the App Store and Google Play carried a negative review share of 14.3%, down from 17.9% in March 2026 - a fall of 3.6 percentage points over the six months tracked, March through August 2026. The share moved down in four of the five month-over-month steps in that window: 17.9% in March, 18.6% in April, 17.4% in May, 16.8% in June, 14.8% in July, 14.3% in August. That covers 180,835 reviews in total: 24,520 reviews across 1,836 apps in March and 31,858 reviews across 1,693 apps in August.

The negative share fell in four of the five month-to-month steps between March and August 2026.

The obvious worry with a category-wide average is that it's just a different mix of apps showing up each month. Appeye checked that directly: among the 75 apps that each had 150 or more reviews in both the March-May window and the June-August window, the negative share moved from 18.1% to 14.4% - the same direction, on the same fixed set of apps. Across all apps in those two three-month windows, not just the 75, the negative share moved from 18.0% (74,731 reviews) to 15.2% (106,104 reviews).

Split by store, the pattern held on both sides. On the App Store, the monthly negative share ran 20.7% in March, 20.2% in April, 20.3% in May, 18.3% in June, 15.6% in July, and 15.9% in August. On Google Play it ran 16.1%, 17.7%, 15.7%, 15.8%, 14.2%, and 13.8% over the same six months. Neither store moved in isolation, and neither store was carrying the whole category's number on its own.

Both stores fell and a fixed cohort of 75 apps fell with them, from 18.1% negative to 14.4% negative, so this wasn't a change in which apps got reviewed.

None of this says why the share fell - Appeye's data doesn't carry causes, only outcomes. It also doesn't mean every Books & Reference app got better; it's a category-wide average, and review volume itself swung a lot across the window, peaking at 43,315 reviews in July before dropping to 31,858 in August as the tracked app count fell from 1,861 to 1,693. Google Play's own star ratings for the category (2,884 Books & Reference apps as of 10 October 2026, every rating rather than only written reviews) put 88.5% at 4-5 stars, 3.5% at 3 stars and 8.0% at 1-2 stars; that's the category's standing shape, separate from the six-month trend described above. The trend is real and it checks out two different ways, which is as much as this kind of data can promise.

88.5%of Google Play star ratings are 4-5 stars