What the rating counts: an average and the ratings behind it

A rating on a store page is an average and a count together. On 6 November 2026 this desk read both on 10 listings in Kenya and the split by star underneath. The table below is the reading; the text explains how to take it apart.

The rating figures and the stars

Average, number of ratings and the count and share for each number of stars. Pages read here: the FxPro app, FxPro cTrader, MetaTrader 4 and 5 and cTrader in Kenya.

An average with a count under it

A rating on a store page is two numbers glued together: an average and a count. The first is what people look at; the second tells you how much weight the first can bear. On 6 November 2026 this desk read both on 9 listings and found no star rating on FxPro Global: Trading Broker in this country view. FxPro: Trading & Investing (Google Play): 4.5 from 104,041 ratings. FxPro cTrader (Google Play): 4.4 from 3,217 ratings. FxPro cTrader (App Store): 3.7 from 3 ratings. MetaTrader 4 Forex Trading (Google Play): 4.6 from 1,024,688 ratings. MetaTrader 5 — Forex, Stocks (Google Play): 4.7 from 1,234,015 ratings. MetaTrader 4 (App Store): 4.7 from 1,371 ratings. MetaTrader 5 (App Store): 4.8 from 5,410 ratings. cTrader: CFD Trading & Charts (Google Play): 4.6 from 29,856 ratings. cTrader: CFD Trading & Charts (App Store): 4.7 from 121 ratings.

Two figures on one Google Play page

On the Google Play page of FxPro: Trading & Investing the header shows 4.5 stars (4.509 before rounding) and, in the “Ratings and reviews” block lower on the page, 4.5 (4.508) with 102,446 ratings; the header's count is 104,041, a difference of 1,595. On the Google Play page of FxPro cTrader the header shows 4.4 stars (4.444 before rounding) and, in the “Ratings and reviews” block lower on the page, 4.4 (4.444) with 2,996 ratings; the header's count is 3,217, a difference of 221. On the Google Play page of MetaTrader 4 Forex Trading the header shows 4.6 stars (4.564 before rounding) and, in the “Ratings and reviews” block lower on the page, 4.6 (4.567) with 987,576 ratings; the header's count is 1,024,688, a difference of 37,112. On the Google Play page of MetaTrader 5 — Forex, Stocks the header shows 4.7 stars (4.699 before rounding) and, in the “Ratings and reviews” block lower on the page, 4.7 (4.701) with 1,199,907 ratings; the header's count is 1,234,015, a difference of 34,108. On the Google Play page of cTrader: CFD Trading & Charts the header shows 4.6 stars (4.570 before rounding) and, in the “Ratings and reviews” block lower on the page, 4.6 (4.570) with 28,659 ratings; the header's count is 29,856, a difference of 1,197.

The page prints both and does not explain the difference, which is why the table prints both rows for each Play listing and does not choose between them. The rounding is part of what you see: two honest roundings of numbers a few thousandths of a star apart can read differently.

The same count, split by star

The split in the table is worked out from the counts the page gives. FxPro: Trading & Investing (Google Play): 78,187 of 102,410 are five-star (76%), 11,181 four-star (11%), 5,427 three-star (5%), 2,188 two-star (2%) and 5,427 one-star (5%); FxPro cTrader (Google Play): 1,834 of 2,933 are five-star (63%), 794 four-star (27%), 183 three-star (6%), 61 two-star (2%) and 61 one-star (2%); FxPro cTrader (App Store): 2 of 3 are five-star (67%), 0 four-star (0%), 0 three-star (0%), 0 two-star (0%) and 1 one-star (33%); MetaTrader 4 Forex Trading (Google Play): 733,315 of 987,357 are five-star (74%), 159,397 four-star (16%), 47,718 three-star (5%), 15,379 two-star (2%) and 31,548 one-star (3%); MetaTrader 5 — Forex, Stocks (Google Play): 954,995 of 1,199,837 are five-star (80%), 178,108 four-star (15%), 38,532 three-star (3%), 9,624 two-star (1%) and 18,578 one-star (2%); MetaTrader 4 (App Store): 1,140 of 1,371 are five-star (83%), 154 four-star (11%), 44 three-star (3%), 12 two-star (1%) and 20 one-star (1%); MetaTrader 5 (App Store): 4,726 of 5,410 are five-star (87%), 453 four-star (8%), 117 three-star (2%), 40 two-star (1%) and 74 one-star (1%); cTrader: CFD Trading & Charts (Google Play): 21,470 of 28,562 are five-star (75%), 3,972 four-star (14%), 1,986 three-star (7%), 283 two-star (1%) and 851 one-star (3%); cTrader: CFD Trading & Charts (App Store): 103 of 121 are five-star (85%), 10 four-star (8%), 5 three-star (4%), 0 two-star (0%) and 3 one-star (2%).

An average hides a shape. Two listings can both read 4.4 with a very different distribution, one with nearly all ratings at five and one with many at five and a visible block at one. The split is the part of the page that shows the difference.

Why the count matters more than it seems

3.7 from 3 ratings (FxPro cTrader, the App Store) and 4.7 from 1,234,015 (MetaTrader 5 — Forex, Stocks, Google Play) are written the same way and carry very different weight. With 3 ratings a single new rating moves the average by at most 1.66667 of a star (five divided by the count); with 1,234,015 it moves by at most 0.00000405.

That is arithmetic, not a view on the apps. A small count can swing from one reading to the next, and a rating built on hundreds of thousands of ratings is stable by comparison. It is also the reason this site prints the date beside every rating: a rating is a moving number, and a figure without its date is half a figure.

A listing without a star rating

The Google Play page of FxPro Global: Trading Broker shows no star rating in the Kenya view on 6 November 2026: the line where the rating sits carries the label Rated for 18+ instead, and the page gives a download bracket of 100K+. The same package showed a star rating in the India, South Africa and Turkey views when it was read there on the same day, so the absence is a fact about this country view and not a statement about the app.

This site does not supply a figure the page does not show. It prints “no rating shown on the page” in the table and moves on.

A worked example of how firm an average is

Take the average a page shows, multiply by the count, add new ratings and divide again; that is all an average is. Worked through for each page that shows a rating: FxPro: Trading & Investing (Google Play), average 4.509 over 104,041 ratings: about 3,052 new one-star ratings in a row would be needed to pull the average down by a tenth of a star; FxPro cTrader (Google Play), average 4.444 over 3,217 ratings: about 96 new one-star ratings in a row would be needed to pull the average down by a tenth of a star; FxPro cTrader (App Store), average 3.667 over 3 ratings: about 0 new one-star ratings in a row would be needed to pull the average down by a tenth of a star; MetaTrader 4 Forex Trading (Google Play), average 4.564 over 1,024,688 ratings: about 29,581 new one-star ratings in a row would be needed to pull the average down by a tenth of a star; MetaTrader 5 — Forex, Stocks (Google Play), average 4.699 over 1,234,015 ratings: about 34,288 new one-star ratings in a row would be needed to pull the average down by a tenth of a star; MetaTrader 4 (App Store), average 4.737 over 1,371 ratings: about 38 new one-star ratings in a row would be needed to pull the average down by a tenth of a star; MetaTrader 5 (App Store), average 4.796 over 5,410 ratings: about 146 new one-star ratings in a row would be needed to pull the average down by a tenth of a star; cTrader: CFD Trading & Charts (Google Play), average 4.570 over 29,856 ratings: about 860 new one-star ratings in a row would be needed to pull the average down by a tenth of a star; cTrader: CFD Trading & Charts (App Store), average 4.736 over 121 ratings: about 3 new one-star ratings in a row would be needed to pull the average down by a tenth of a star.

The figures are a calculation on the page's numbers, not a forecast of what will happen. They show why a rating built on a large count is slow to move, and why the same one-star rating that is invisible on a listing with many ratings is large on one with few.

The words on a rating line

Four words recur on the rating line of a store page and are easy to mix up. A rating is one star score given by one person. A review is a rating with text written next to it. The average is the sum of the ratings divided by their number. The count is the number of ratings the average is taken over; Play prints it in a short form such as “104K reviews”, which this site reads as the exact figure the page's data carries. On the App Store the count is called “Ratings” and the page prints it in full.

Different stores, different populations

The Play figures and the App Store figures are not a single survey. They are collected by two companies from two groups of phone owners, and the pages show the apps under their own developer names. Setting the averages side by side is allowed; subtracting one from the other to say which app is better is not, because nothing on the pages says that they rate the same product. The Play page also carries the label “Ratings and reviews are verified”. This site repeats the label as the page words it and has not tested it.

What this page leaves out

The store pages also show reviews: people's own words, with their names. This site does not copy them. They are other people's writing, they change by the hour and a handful chosen by a store's ordering is not a sample. The captured pictures on this site have the review cards hidden for the same reason and say so.

What remains is the part of a rating that can be recomputed: an average, a count and five bars.