Starlight® - Explore the Stars
75
Quality Score
Strong
✍️ Bumetric analysis
“
Starlight® - Explore the Stars is an iOS app from ION6, LLC in the News category, currently rated 4.7★ across 3,048 ratings. Initial signal reads as mixed reviews: supporters praise core features while critics cite stability and value gaps.
Quality Score is 75: Strong (healthy traction). For a News app, that means healthy traction. The full BU Investment Matrix below scores 8 dimensions including monetisation, growth, and operational risk.
Track changes month-over-month in the Performance section below: live snapshot history and revenue forecast included.
💰 Monthly revenue · now vs forecast
● Right now
$10.5K
per month
→
12-mo forecast
$10.8K – $22.7K
per month
→
24-mo forecast
$13.4K – $40.3K
per month
MID tier
💡 Grow this revenue
Free AI audit of this app’s store listing
- Title & subtitle keyword fit
- Description hook & conversion structure
- Screenshots, ratings, reviews strategy
Typical impact: +2-5× organic installs
📊 Performance Tracking LIVE
80 snapshots on record
Rating
4.7
Reviews
3,048 reviews
Forecast Revenue / mo
$10.5K
Snapshots tracked
80
since Dec 2013
ONE-TIME · BUILD
💰 Estimated build cost
$140K
↳ What it cost to build · not monthly revenue
Likely range $105K – $190K
$25K · MVP floor
$100K · indie scale
$500K+ · studio build
📈
Pays back in ~1.1y at current MRR
Synthetic estimate. Inputs: category complexity, file size, screen count, monetization layer, platform reach, age × team-size proxy. Calibrated against 2024-2026 indie-agency rate surveys. Full math + source list on /methodology.
Where the money goes
| 🧱 MVP baseline (design + 1-store ship) | +$28K |
| 📱 5 unique screens × $4.5K | +$22K |
| ⚙ News complexity ×1.20 | +$10K |
| ⚙ 12.8y maintenance × ~1-person team | +$76K |
Total estimate
$140K
ONE-TIME · EXIT VALUE
💵 Estimated acquisition value
$200K
↳ What it would sell for · not monthly revenue
Marketplace range $150K – $275K · 20× MRR multiple
💸
~1.4× build cost (break-even+)
Synthetic estimate. Multiple band derived from ad-supported + age, rating quality, category demand, and user-base maturity. Calibrated against 2024-2026 indie-app-marketplace closed-deal medians. Full math + comparable deal list on /methodology.
How the multiple was built
| 📺 Ad-supported base | 15× MRR |
| 📅 12.8y proven track record | +20% |
| ⭐ ★ rating ≥ 4.7 (premium) | +15% |
| 🏷 News category multiple | -5% |
Final multiple
20× MRR
👥 Estimated audience size
255K
Lifetime downloads (US-equivalent)
Monthly active
13K
Daily active
5.8K
Synthetic estimate from ratings × category benchmarks. Calibrated against 2024-2026 mobile-attribution retention + DAU/MAU reports. Numbers are US-storefront-equivalent — true global audience can be 5-10× larger for international apps. Full math + source list on /methodology.
How we sized it
| 📲 News engagement | ~120 installs / rating |
| 📅 12.8y of rating accumulation | -30% |
| 🔁 News D30 retention | 15% |
| 📍 DAU / MAU stickiness | 0.45 |
DAU / MAU
45% sticky
🛠 Estimated tech stack
🍎
Native iOS (Swift / UIKit)
Medium confidence · 70%
Also possible
Flutter
Heuristic guess from app bundle size, category, store description signals, and release-date stack era. Bumetric does not disassemble binaries — for binary-level certainty you would need an SDK intelligence tool or the manifest itself. Reasoning chain on the right. Full ruleset on /methodology.
Signals we read
| 📦 App bundle size | 39 MB |
| 🏷 Category context | News |
| 📦 Small-mid iOS bundle | → Native Swift / UIKit (pre-2020 era) |
💀 Maintenance status
Active
15%
Last shipped 2026-07-01 · 84 days ago
0 · Active
50 · At risk
100 · Abandoned
Heuristic risk score from time-since-last-update + ratings velocity proxy + Editor's Choice / curated featuring signals. Calibrated against 2024-2025 app-store ranking decay reports. Not a guarantee — a quiet app with a healthy codebase looks the same as an abandoned one until something breaks. Full math on /methodology.
Risk signals
| 📅 84 days since last update | Healthy release cadence |
Verdict
Active
🔬
How we forecast this revenue
MEDIUM CONFIDENCEBaseline
$10.5K/mo · ML-estimated from 234 triggers
Growth rate
+4.0% MoM · MID tier baseline (compound monthly)
6 months
$9.9K – $16.6K
12 months
$10.8K – $22.7K
24 months
$13.4K – $40.3K
Compound growth at +4.0% MoM (tier baseline for MID). Range widens with horizon — typical noise band ±25% at 6mo.. Ranges widen with horizon — distant futures carry more uncertainty.
📊
BU Investment Matrix
Below median · 53/100MID TIERunderperforming peersGrowth Velocity
5.0
Founder Strength
5.5
Product Quality
8.5
Revenue Strength
4.0
Monetization Maturity
1.0
Defensibility
6.0
Market Position
2.0
Operational Safety
10.0
- 💰 Revenue: Modest — $7K - $15K/mo · MID tier · medium confidence, trajectory unclear.
- ⭐ Quality: 4.74★ across 3,048 reviews — strong (top 10%).
- 📍 Market: Not yet charting in any of the 9 monitored markets.
- 📈 Growth: Insufficient signal to assess trajectory.
- ⚠️ Risk: Low — no material risk signals detected.
🎯 For competitors: Mixed picture. Worth competing if you have a clear UX or pricing edge — otherwise crowded segment.
💵 For acquirers: Estimated asking range 18-32× monthly = $188K-$335K. Portfolio play ($28K/mo combined) commands premium.
Composite of 8 dimensions computed deterministically from public signals — no LLM, every score traces back to a measurable input. Default weights shown; "compete" / "acquire" / "invest" lenses re-weight without re-fetching.
Range:
💰 Forecast Revenue / mo
MODELRevenue forecast computed from BU's 234 trigger model on each snapshot. Calibrated against ground-truth from 58 verified-revenue apps.
🔬Forecast Breakdown — Why This Estimate?Top 10 of 10 triggers
Our ML model uses 200+ signals from public data. These are the most influential for this app:
| Paid app ($2.99)METRIC | +$2,800 | |
| Excellent rating (4.7★)METRIC | +$2,200 | |
| worth every pennyREVIEW | +$2,000 | |
| bugsREVIEW | −$1,800 | |
| 5 starREVIEW | +$1,800 | |
| excellent appREVIEW | +$1,500 | |
| Low install base (3,048 ratings)METRIC | +$1,500 | |
| Mature app (12y old)METRIC | +$1,500 | |
| highly recommendREVIEW | +$1,400 | |
| Localized (7 languages)METRIC | +$600 |
METRIC = structural app data · REVIEW = mined from user reviews · ✓ VERIFIED = Stripe-verified anchor (TrustMRR)
📈 Reviews Growth
LIVECumulative review count from first BU snapshot. Each point = a tracked update.
⭐ Rating Trend
LIVEAverage rating evolution. Updates with each new review batch.
🆕 What's New · v4.1.3
This update fixes a graphics glitch that could make the constellation artwork appear as green rectangles on some devices. The classic illustrations now display correctly.
Profile & Insights
Everything we know — and don't — about this app and its company.
Identification
- App name
- Starlight® - Explore the Stars
- Developer
- ION6, LLC
- Bundle ID
- com.gyrocade.Starlight2
- App Store URL
- Open in App Store
- Category
- News
- Content rating
- 4+
- Languages
- EN, FR, DE, IT, JA, PT, ES
Company
- Website
- Not found
- Tagline
- Not found
- Description
- Not found
- Founded
- Not found
- HQ / Address
- Not found
- Employees
- Not found
- Logo
- Not found
Revenue
- Reported revenue signal / mo
- Not found
- AI revenue estimate / mo
- Not found
- AI annual estimate
- Not found
- Model estimate / mo
- $10.5K/mo
- Top-grossing rank
- Outside top 100 in US News
- All-time revenue
- Not found
- Pricing
- Not found
Founder
Founder data not yet collected for this app.
Funding
Funding data not yet collected for this app.
Press & Links
Press & Links data not yet collected for this app.
Contacts & Socials
Contacts & Socials data not yet collected for this app.
📈Ratings growth3,163 ratings+4008% lifetimeShow 3-year history estimate ▾
Tracked (60 weeks) Pre-tracking estimate (0 weeks) · model-based, ±5% noise · anchored to release date and current value
🌍Geographic ReachNot ranked
This app is currently outside the top 100 grossing in all 9 countries we monitor (US, UK, DE, FR, JP, CA, AU, BR, IN). Niche or new apps often launch this way — popularity rankings appear once daily revenue clears the regional threshold.
💰Pricing History$0.00 → $2.99 (+0%)
🚀Update Frequency · Releases per Quarter3 releases tracked
🚀Version Release Timeline3 releases tracked
Profile is built from iTunes Lookup + developer site scrape + ML revenue model. Empty fields show "Not found" — additional sources (Crunchbase, X, IndieHackers, Acquire.com) coming.
📝 About this app
Point your iPhone or iPad like a magic lens into the night sky, and see in real time what stars, planets, and constellations hover above. Stargazing has never been so easy!
This app is a streamlined starmap that is gorgeous to look at. See constellations come to life against a vibrant backdrop of stars, each colored according to their actual stellar classification. Track the movement of planets. See the phases of the moon. Discover detailed information about stars. Amaze your friends and educate your kids with this impressive app.
FEATURES:
* New Augmented reality mode!… View full description on the official store →
This app is a streamlined starmap that is gorgeous to look at. See constellations come to life against a vibrant backdrop of stars, each colored according to their actual stellar classification. Track the movement of planets. See the phases of the moon. Discover detailed information about stars. Amaze your friends and educate your kids with this impressive app.
FEATURES:
* New Augmented reality mode!… View full description on the official store →
App Specs
🔐 Own this app? Claim & verify MRR →💾 39 MB🔞 4+📱 iOS 16+🔖 v4.1.3🔄 updated 2mo ago🌐 EN, FR, DE, IT, JA +2📂 News💰 Paid🚀 Launched 2013 (12y old)
📅
What Worked™ · Development Pipeline
15 EVENTS TRACKEDDetected changes in this app over its tracked lifetime — each event links cause (what changed) to effect (what moved). Sorted newest first.See full history →Version history →
2026-07
🔧
Shipped update — v4.1.1 → v4.1.3
→ 30 days after: revenue −$10.3K/mo · reviews +76 high confidence
2026-06
📦
Bundle ↓ 73MB → 42MB — likely major code refresh
→ 30 days after: revenue −$10.3K/mo · reviews +76 high confidence
2026-06
🔧
Shipped update — v3.2.7 → v4.1.1
→ 30 days after: reviews +76 high confidence
2026-05
💲
Went paid — introduced $2.99 price point
→ 30 days after: reviews +76 high confidence
2026-03
📈
Crossed 500 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
2016-08
📈
Crossed 100 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
2016-08
📈
Crossed 100 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: revenue +$134/mo · reviews +10 high confidence
2015-05
📈
Crossed 50 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: revenue +$67/mo · reviews +5 high confidence
2015-05
📈
Crossed 50 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: revenue +$81/mo · reviews +6 high confidence
2014-06
📈
Crossed 10 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: revenue +$51/mo · rating −0.15★ medium · co-occurring
2014-06
📈
Crossed 10 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
→ 30 days after: revenue +$54/mo · rating +0.06★ high confidence
2014-04
⭐
Rating ↓ 4.80 → 4.33 (dropped 0.47★)
→ 30 days after: rating +0.23★ high confidence
2014-01
⭐
Rating ↓ 5.00 → 4.67 (dropped 0.33★)
→ 30 days after: rating −0.25★ medium · co-occurring
2013-12
🚀
First tracked snapshot — initial data captured
→ 30 days after: rating −0.25★ medium · co-occurring
2013-12
🚀
First tracked snapshot — initial data captured
→ 30 days after: rating −0.25★ high confidence
🌍
Multi-Country Performance
Available in 9 of 9 monitored markets| Market | Rating | Reviews | Current version |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇦🇺 AU | 4.60975★ | 123 | 4.60975★ this version |
| 🇧🇷 BR | 4.78932★ | 337 | 4.78932★ this version |
| 🇨🇦 CA | 4.72062★ | 451 | 4.72062★ this version |
| 🇩🇪 DE | 4.62743★ | 1,546 | 4.62743★ this version |
| 🇫🇷 FR | 4.67891★ | 953 | 4.67891★ this version |
| 🇬🇧 GB | 4.6795★ | 493 | 4.6795★ this version |
| 🇮🇳 IN | 4.85227★ | 88 | 4.85227★ this version |
| 🇯🇵 JP | 4.5748★ | 127 | 4.5748★ this version |
| 🇺🇸 US | 4.73721★ | 3,166 | 4.73721★ this version |
🔔
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📝 Description
95
BU Score · Transcendent
Full revenue analysis
Read the article-style breakdown for Starlight® - Explore the Stars: category rank, percentile, growth signal, comparable apps, and how the forecast is calibrated against verified-MRR anchors in this niche.
More by ION6, LLC
View all →📦 Portfolio summaryINDIE studio
2apps·$10K/mocombined
⚠ Concentrated — top app contributes 98% of combined revenue (single-app dependency)
About this analysis
Why medium confidence: 3,048 ratings · no founder-verified revenue (model estimate only).
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
10 answers · auto-generated from this app's public dataHow much does Starlight® - Explore the Stars make per month?▴
Based on our ML-calibrated revenue forecast, Starlight® - Explore the Stars earns approximately $10K/mo. This is a US-storefront-equivalent estimate; global revenue can be several times larger for internationally-distributed apps. See the methodology page for the full formula and confidence bands.
Is Starlight® - Explore the Stars profitable?▴
With estimated build cost $140K and monthly revenue $10K, Starlight® - Explore the Stars looks break-even-grade — payback period sits around 1.1 years. Profitability also depends on paid-acquisition spend and refund rate which the public model doesn't see.
How many users does Starlight® - Explore the Stars have?▴
Estimated audience: ~255K lifetime downloads, ~13K monthly active users, and ~5K daily active users. Derived from ratings count × category installs-per-rating × age decay. US-storefront-equivalent — global audience can be 5-10× larger for internationally-distributed apps.
What apps are like Starlight® - Explore the Stars?▴
Browse the full News category catalog to find similar apps with revenue, build cost, audience and tech stack data. Each /p/{slug} page also shows a Compare side-by-side widget with three peer apps from the same niche.
What is Starlight® - Explore the Stars built with?▴
Our heuristic places Starlight® - Explore the Stars on the Native iOS (Swift / UIKit) stack (Medium confidence, 70%). Signals: app bundle size, category context, store-description markers, release-date era. We don't disassemble binaries. Alternative possibilities: Flutter.
Is Starlight® - Explore the Stars still actively maintained?▴
Maintenance status: Active (15% abandonment risk). Last shipped version was 2 months ago. The risk score combines time-since-last-update with Editor's Choice / curated featuring + user-base maturity adjustments.
How much would Starlight® - Explore the Stars sell for?▴
Estimated acquisition value: $200K (marketplace range $150K – $275K). Calculated as 20× monthly revenue using the standard multiple for the detected monetization model + adjustments for age, rating quality and category demand. Calibrated against 2024-2026 Flippa / Acquire.com / MicroAcquire closed-deal medians.
When was Starlight® - Explore the Stars last updated?▴
Starlight® - Explore the Stars last shipped a new version on 2026-07-01 — 2 months ago. This is the date Apple / Google last accepted a new build, not a content-only push.
Who makes Starlight® - Explore the Stars?▴
Starlight® - Explore the Stars is published by ION6, LLC on the Apple App Store. See the full publisher portfolio (other apps by the same developer) via the More by developer block on the product page above.
What is Starlight® - Explore the Stars's BU Score?▴
Starlight® - Explore the Stars has a BU Score of 75/100 (Strong). The score combines App Store rating, ratings count, monetization model and revenue signals calibrated against founder-verified MRR anchors. See the BU Score formula.