Shopify requirement 4.3.4 is one sentence:

Don't use stats, data, or unsubstantiated claims such as guarantees in images.

It has a twin, 4.3.3, that says the same thing about the listing text. Between them they rule out the first thing almost everybody wants on a feature image: a number.

What it actually catches

Not just the obviously inflated ones. All of these are refused:

  • Used by 10,000+ merchants
  • Saves 4 hours a week
  • Increases conversion by 23%
  • 99.9% uptime
  • Guaranteed to reduce cart abandonment
  • 4.9 ★ from 300 reviews

The last one is refused twice over. Requirement 4.3.6 keeps reviews and testimonials out of the listing, and 4.3.4 keeps statistics out of the images. A star rating printed on a feature image is both at once.

The exception people assume exists

There is a strong instinct that a number you can prove must be allowed. It is not. The rule says stats and data, and it does not distinguish between a figure you invented and a figure you measured.

Nor does attribution rescue it. Writing 500+ active sellers — OG Kicks feels like diligence, and reads like a case study, and is still a statistic in an image. We know because we drew a set with six of them on it, felt good about naming the client each one came from, and then read the requirement properly.

Why the rule is not unreasonable

A reviewer has no way to check a number on a picture. They cannot audit your install count, and if they let one through they have to let every one through. The only workable policy is a flat no.

There is a second reason, which is that numbers on listing images do not work as well as people think. A merchant scrolling a category page is not comparing install counts. They are deciding, in about a second and a half, whether an app does the thing they came for.

What to show instead

Show the feature that produced the number. If the app saves four hours a week, draw the four steps it collapses into one. If it reduces support tickets, draw the thing customers used to write in about, answered on the page. A feature cannot be asked to prove itself; a percentage can, and one day will be.

Concretely, on a set of six:

  • The feature image says what the app does, in as few words as it takes.
  • Four screenshots each show one capability, on a real screen.
  • The last answers the objection that stops installs — setup time, theme fit, performance.

Where the numbers do belong

In the listing description, if they are substantiated, and on your own website, where nobody is refusing anything. The App Store listing is not the only surface you have. It is just the one with a reviewer attached.

The two requirements about what an image may show — 4.4.4 and 4.4.5 — are quoted in full, with the dates they began to be enforced, on our listing image rules page.