“for the love of god, please stop with the pop up ads for the nyt on desktop”
Independent automated assessment · 3 signal sources · 950 reviews scanned · analyzed 2026-10-06.
4.8 ★288,067 ratings
1M+Downloads
12+Age rating
215 MBApp size
Free · In-app purchasesIn-app purchases
About this app
Keep up with the teams you care about with The Athletic app. Review sports news, scores and stats, and expert insights analysis for each league. Turn on notifications to get real time updates for basketball, football, soccer, hockey, baseball, and more. Get in depth with sports coverage when you can listen to exclusive podcasts and read breaking news stories on your favorite athletes and teams.
Download today to stay up to date on your daily sports news.
The Athletic Features:
EXCLUSIVE SPORTS NEWS, INSIGHTS, AND ANALYSIS - Go deeper with in-depth, global coverage and exclusive sports news. - Our award-winning newsroom of more than 400 sports journalists. - Get exclusive access to expert sports insights and analysis. - Explore deeply-reported long reads and exclusive sports interviews.…
Preview
Real screenshots from the store listing.
Independent evidence report
Evidence and review signals
This is where the page changes from an app-store listing into an evidence report: findings, important reviews, pricing and a dated history.
Which version this describes
When we ran this analysis, and what the store lists now.
App Store
This analysis describes version 13.153.0 of the app, analyzed 2026-10-06 . The app may have changed since.
The store currently lists version 13.153.0, updated 2026-09-29.
Google Play
This analysis describes version 13.153.0 of the app, analyzed 2026-10-04 . The app may have changed since.
The store currently lists version 13.153.0, updated 2026-09-29.
What we measured
Each line is a measurement published as a measurement, never a verdict.
Each line is a measurement, published as a measurement. Where we have not looked, the line says so rather than reading as a zero.
Developer replies to reviews
Replies to fewer than 1 review in 20
Price in the store description
States no price and billing period
Cancelling, in the store description
Does not say how to cancel
Themes reported by reviewers
2 themes reported
Counted from the reviews we have read for this app. "No theme reported" means no theme reached our reporting threshold — it is not a finding that nothing is wrong with this app, and we do not say it is.
Five-star share of ratings
80–89% five-star
Arithmetic on the stores' own published rating counts. It says nothing about why the ratings fall where they do.
In the package we scanned
No package has been scanned for this app, so nothing is published about what it ships. That is an absence of evidence about the app, not a finding about it.
Graded bands · predicate set 1.4 · how these are measured
What the analysis found
App-specific findings, grouped by what each one rests on. How they are graded lives on its own page.
Positive evidence 1
Things this app does right, published at the same strengths as the catch list.
Developer says data deletion can be requested
The developer's data-safety disclosure on the store states that users can request deletion of their data, or the app's own text offers a way to delete the account. This restates what the developer declares; it is not a test of whether deletion works. Apple publishes no equivalent disclosure, so on an Apple-only listing only the app's own text can support it.
What we saw: The developer's store data-safety disclosure states that data deletion can be requested; we have not seen a deletion control in the app's own text
One source only — shown, not confirmed 2
A single kind of evidence. We publish these because withholding them would be the bigger distortion, and we do not treat any of them as a finding we stand behind.
Reported by users: Aggressive ad load
Advertising volume or placement that interrupts normal use: ads between every action, unskippable or forced full-screen ads.
What we saw: Aggressive ad load: raised by 12 distinct reviewers (2.3% of 528 reviews scanned)
Reported by users: Hard to cancel
Cancelling the subscription is blocked, hidden, multi-step, or simply does not take effect.
What we saw: Hard to cancel: raised by 12 distinct reviewers (2.3% of 528 reviews scanned)
Highlighted reviews
Representative public review excerpts shown as user reports, not Appworthy audit evidence.
“pay for a subscription and be rewarded with endless adverts. Useless interface and diminishing quality across the football coverage. Naff.”
“Full of ads now. I pay to not have ads. Canceling”
Assessment & version history
App changes and Appworthy events in one timeline.
Store listing updated to version 13.153.0.
What this app sells
Useful store-disclosed pricing, kept below the app listing.
Items shown8
Lowest$7.99
Highest$99.99
Monthly$7.99
The Athletic - Monthly$7.99
The Athletic Monthly Plan$7.99
The Athletic Monthly Subscription$9.99
The Athletic Subscription - Monthly$7.99
Show 3 more purchases
The Athletic Annual Subscription$99.99
Annual$71.99
The Athletic Subscription$71.99
Google Play does not publish per-purchase prices.