How the readings on this site are taken

Each table on this site is built from readings of public pages. This page explains how a reading is taken, where its limits lie and what the site deliberately omits.

What a reading is

To take a reading, a script on a server makes one request, without logging in, to a public page on a stated day; here the day is 6 November 2026 and there are 4 listings. Play pages were asked for in the Nigeria view (hl=en, gl=NG); App Store pages at their the Nigeria address and through the lookup interface set to the Nigeria storefront. Raw answers were stored, and the tables are parsed from the stored files.

Every date is in UTC. Figures always travel with a store, a country view and a day; without all three they are left out. Pictures are of two kinds: captures of the public pages taken the same day, or drawings from the saved readings. Neither kind comes from inside an app.

How the figures are re-checked

A reading is only kept if a second program, taking a different route through the saved files, reproduces it. It compares Play's visible text with its embedded data, the App Store lookup with the App Store page, star counts with the ratings total, and the history's newest entry with the current version. To test the checker, faults were planted on purpose (a different rating, another developer, a different count, a missing privacy category, an edited date, a changed file) and each was caught.

What was asked of each source

The program asks little of each source. It waits at least eight seconds between requests to the same host, caps a day's total, and halts on a refusal (HTTP 403 or 429). The broker's own site refused its front page, FAQ and About page with 403 on 6 November 2026. Its public text file was readable and is the one broker page this site quotes.

Pages whose layout differs

Pages differ in layout. Where a Play page carries no star rating in this view, or a storefront lacks an App Store entry, the reading notes the absence and the table says so in words instead of inventing a value.

What the site leaves out on purpose

Three things are excluded by design: whatever sits behind a login, written reviews, and any ranking or recommendation. Where a description is used it is quoted and not interpreted. Ratings and declarations are reported as printed and dated; whether they are true is not asserted.