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Hearthstone
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. · Games

What’s the catch? Pay to progress — reported by 107 users.

Analyzed automatically from 6 independent signals that had to agree — not a hands-on test, and not human-reviewed.

1 on the catch list · analyzedConfidence: High6 signal sources2,682 reviews scannedNot human-reviewedas of 2026-10-06
 Which version this describes

App Store

This analysis describes version 36.6.0.253216 of the app, analyzed 2026-10-06 . The app may have changed since.

The store currently lists version 36.6.0.253216, updated 2026-09-24.

Google Play

This analysis describes version 36.6.253216 of the app (the version number recorded inside the package we inspected), analyzed 2026-10-06 . The app may have changed since.

The store currently lists version 36.6.253216, updated 2026-09-23.

What the analysis found

Each finding shows what agreed and how strongly. Automated analysis

The catch list 1

Charges we publish at a strength we stand behind: measured from an artefact, agreed by independent sources, or reported by enough users to clear that charge's own published bar.

Reported by users: Pay to progress
Reported by 107 usersReported by users, not measured — nothing we can inspect could show this either wayview evidence
Advancement or competition is gated behind spending money rather than playing.
What we saw: Raised by 107 distinct reviewers — 5.2% of the 2,056 reviews scanned on this store leg (App Store).

Positive evidence 2

Things this app does right, published at the same strengths as the catch list.

No advertising SDKs
Measuredfrom SDKs in the app packageartefact f7b12b0f3715…
No advertising or mediation SDK of any kind was found in the package.
What we saw: No advertising or mediation SDK among the 6 SDKs detected in the package
Developer says data deletion can be requested
Measuredfrom the store listingview evidence
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 1

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: Price keeps rising
One source onlyShown, not confirmed — the only source is user reviews.view evidence
The price of the paid tier has been raised on existing users.
What we saw: Price keeps rising: raised by 5 distinct reviewers (0.2% of 2056 reviews scanned)

What reviewers said

Verbatim excerpts from public store reviews, shown as corroborating user reports. They are not Appworthy audit evidence, and a quotation is not proof of the finding it sits under.

Pay to progress

Pay to win mechanics, design that gives strong competitive edge to high system specs(in a card game? really?), and refusal to install updates without a full reinstall every time because there's "not enough space on your device" (there is…

1★ · Google Play · 2026-08-04

Extremely pay to win, dust requirement is too much for crafting legendary & epic cards,not to mention the amount of experience you get for the daily & weekly missions are laughable, extremely stingy CEO's. Players who pay for packs with…

1★ · Google Play · 2026-08-06

PAY TO WIN. It’s almost impossible to stay relevant unless you're willing to open your wallet. The game is pure frustration, you’ll suffer through terrible card draws while your opponent magically gets every exact piece they need. It’s…

1★ · Google Play · 2026-08-30

Price keeps rising

GREED — JUST QUIT JOINED MAR 22 2013! TO OFFSET DECLINING REVENUE THE DEVS DID THE DUMBEST THING EVER - THEY GOT GREEDY AND INTRODUCED YET ANOTHER CURRENCY THAT ALIENATES PLAYERS. BLOODSTONES ARE THE FINAL STRAW. MY FAVORITE GAME IS…

1★ · App Store · 2026-10-04

What this app sells

Every purchase the store discloses. Store listing
 What this app sells
Google Play doesn’t publish per-purchase prices, so this list covers the other store only.

How the automated analysis works

Automated, corroborated, and never human-reviewed without a person.

This assessment is produced automatically. Six independent signals are read — user reviews, SDKs in the app package, the app's own on-screen text, the app manifest, the store listing and the store privacy disclosure — and each candidate finding is filed under the sources that support it.

No charge stands on one kind of evidence — with one published exception. A finding is either a measured fact that anyone can reproduce (an ad SDK is in the package; every subscription bills weekly; the privacy label omits a tracker we can see), or it is an interpretation — and an interpretation needs independent sources to agree before it reaches the catch list. The exception is a harm only users can see: a charge may publish from reviews alone, as “Reported by N users”, once enough reviewers raise it to clear that charge’s own published bar. That agreement rule is what replaced the human reviewer, not a model’s confidence.

There is no overall score, on purpose. A 0–99 number was published here until 2026-09-15. It was withdrawn because it discriminated too weakly to be the instrument — 44.7% of every pair of apps tied — and because a single number is a verdict where a count is an observation. What publishes instead is a row of measurements, each of which says what was counted and, where we could not look, says that instead.

Findings under One source only are real reports we do not stand behind as findings. They are shown because withholding them entirely would hide a genuine complaint, and labelled because publishing them as charges would be an accusation off a single source.

 Not yet human-reviewed

Several measurements above say “Not assessed” because no artefact we hold can answer them. A human review is what resolves those — and it can remove a favourable band as easily as add one.

Hands-on inspections are not yet open.

 How this page was produced
Analyzed 2026-10-06 Version analyzed: 36.6.0.253216 (App Store), 36.6.253216 (Google Play)6 independent signals2,682 reviews scannedConfidence: HighNot human-reviewedVocabulary v1.13Methodology v1.3
Signals run: user reviews, SDKs in the app package, the app's own on-screen text, the app manifest, the store listing and the store privacy disclosure.