DiscoverBrowse CategoriesHow it worksMethodologyFor developers
The Athletic: All Sports News
The New York Times Company · Lifestyle

Analyzed automatically. Assessed 2026-10-06 from 950 user reviews, the store listing and its privacy label. We have not scanned the app's package, so nothing on this page was read from inside the app itself.

Analyzed automaticallyConfidence: High3 signal sources950 reviews scannedNot human-reviewedas of 2026-10-06
 Which version this describes

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 the analysis found

Each finding shows what agreed and how strongly. Automated analysis

Positive evidence 1

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

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 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
One source onlyShown, not confirmed — the only source is user reviews.view evidence
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
One source onlyShown, not confirmed — the only source is user reviews.view evidence
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)

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.

Aggressive ad load

for the love of god, please stop with the pop up ads for the nyt on desktop

1★ · Google Play · 2025-11-21

pay for a subscription and be rewarded with endless adverts. Useless interface and diminishing quality across the football coverage. Naff.

1★ · Google Play · 2026-01-27

Full of ads now. I pay to not have ads. Canceling

1★ · Google Play · 2026-03-17

Hard to cancel

the articles are great but they make it impossible to cancel your subscription

1★ · Google Play · 2026-08-11

Impossible to cancel subscription — The content was OK but when you want to cancel the process is intentionally evil and even after you do it you’ll continue to be billed.

1★ · App Store · 2026-09-01

No customer service — I am unable to unsubscribe because there’s no customer service

1★ · App Store · 2026-07-24

What this app sells

Every purchase the store discloses. Store listing
 What this app sells

From the store listing. Billing terms are read from each purchase’s name — the stores don’t publish them — so treat them as a strong hint, not a disclosure.

Subscriptions8
MonthlyMonthly$7.99
The Athletic - MonthlyMonthly$7.99
The Athletic Monthly PlanMonthly$7.99
The Athletic Monthly SubscriptionMonthly$9.99
The Athletic Subscription - MonthlyMonthly$7.99
The Athletic Annual SubscriptionYearly$99.99
AnnualYearly$71.99
The Athletic SubscriptionTerm not stated$71.99
This list is cut off. Apple shows at most 10 in-app purchases, and this app is at the limit — so it very likely sells more than we can see.
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. Three independent signals are read — user reviews, 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: 13.153.0 (App Store), 13.153.0 (Google Play)3 independent signals950 reviews scannedConfidence: HighNot human-reviewedVocabulary v1.13Methodology v1.3
Signals run: user reviews, the store listing and the store privacy disclosure. Not yet checked: SDKs in the app package, the app's own on-screen text and the app manifest.