Backyard Showdown research
What an Amazon Star Rating Actually Counts: 720 Pool and Backyard Listings Read
A star rating on Amazon looks like a verdict on the thing you are about to buy. Often it is not. We read the rating behind every product we card, one listing at a time, and record what it actually counts. Across the 720 Amazon ratings we have read (June to October 2026):
- 50% are shared across the listing's sizes, colours or models (360 of 720), so the stars are not a read of the one you pick.
- 54% include reviews from other countries' Amazon stores (387 of 720).
- 4% include reviews written for free products or rewards, such as Amazon Vine (29 of 720).
- Only 24% describe one product, bought by US owners, with none of those mixed in (173 of 720).
- The median rating count is 505; 152 of the 720 sit under 100, the point below which we label a base early data.
By category
| Category | Ratings read | Shared across variants | Include non-US reviews | Include incentivised reviews | One product, US owners |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pool | 406 | 49% | 57% | 6% | 23% |
| Grills & pizza | 96 | 18% | 66% | 1% | 30% |
| Furniture | 82 | 68% | 35% | 0% | 26% |
| Fire & heat | 45 | 73% | 47% | 2% | 18% |
| yard | 29 | 76% | 62% | 3% | 0% |
| Storage | 21 | 71% | 43% | 5% | 10% |
| Patio care | 17 | 12% | 0% | 0% | 88% |
| Lighting | 11 | 82% | 45% | 0% | 18% |
| pizza | 11 | 36% | 91% | 0% | 9% |
Categories with fewer than 10 ratings read are left out of the table and kept in the totals.
What each finding means
- Shared across variants. Listing-wide — this rating is pooled across sizes/variants, not specific to this model. The test is cheap: switch the size or colour on the listing and watch the rating count. If it does not move, the stars belong to the whole family.
- Non-US reviews. Global — pooled across marketplaces, not US-only. A review from another country can describe a different plug, a different climate or a different version of the product.
- Incentivised reviews. Partly incentivised — includes reviews collected through an incentive program (Amazon Vine free products or Early Reviewer Rewards, or a retailer review promotion). They are real reviews of the real product, but the reviewer did not pay for it.
How we counted
One row per Amazon rating on a product we card in a showdown or guide. Each was read on the live listing, one page at a time, never scraped, and the findings were recorded with the date of the read. A rating we have not yet read (40 of 760) is left out of every percentage rather than counted as clean. The non-US and incentive findings come from the reviews the listing page shows, usually 8 to 13, so they can only undercount. A listing can carry more than one finding, so the first three percentages overlap. Where an entry was marked clean and also carries a specific finding, the specific finding counts. These figures are rebuilt from our data every time the site is published, so they change as we re-read listings.
What this does not tell you: whether a product is good. A shared rating can still be an honest one, and a clean base can still be thin. It tells you what the number on the listing is made of, which is the part a star average hides. Every product page on this site shows its own rating with these findings beside it.
How to cite this
The Backyard Showdown, "What an Amazon Star Rating Actually Counts", thebackyardshowdown.com/research/amazon-rating-bases/,720 Amazon listings read June to October 2026.