Declared gamification elements in urban mobility apps of Latin American App Store storefronts and their association with user ratings

Introduction: Gamification is widely tested in mobility interventions, but little is known about how often commercial urban mobility apps declare game elements in Latin America, or whether declaring them relates to user ratings. Methods: Cross-sectional content analysis of listings returned by the public iTunes Search API for six Latin American storefronts. Apps released in 2013-2025 were classified by mobility mode, and declared points, badges, rankings, challenges and rewards were coded by dictionary screen and AI adjudication, pending author verification. Proportions were compared with permutation, Fisher and clustered logistic models; ratings were compared in apps with at least 5 ratings. Results: Of 615 eligible apps, 8 (1.3%; 95% CI 0.7-2.5%) declared at least one element, most often rewards (7 apps). Prevalence differed by mode (permutation p = 0.003) because of carpooling (4 of 52 apps; odds ratio 11.7 versus other modes, 95% CI 2.8-48.0). It did not differ across storefronts (Wald p = 0.655). Among 328 apps with at least 5 ratings, the mean rating difference for gamified apps was 0.19 (95% CI −0.79 to 1.02; p = 0.727), and the number of elements was not associated with ratings (rho = 0.03). Conclusions: Declared gamification was rare in the listings analysed and concentrated in carpooling apps, with no detectable regional or rating differences. The few gamified apps limit precision, and the rating estimates are compatible with differences of up to about one point in either direction.