Local Falcon 2025 — 50M results: review bar to rank in 3-pack by category

Claim: Local Falcon whitepaper "What 50 Million Search Results Reveal About Ranking in the Local 3-Pack" (50.4M search results, 1,993 categories, Q4 2025). Median reviews to rank in 3-pack:

• Home health care: ~2 (wide-open)
• Lawyers / accountants: ~40-54 (low-volume local categories)
• Dentists: ~180 rural median (more in metros)
• Plumbers / HVAC / pest control: 200-265
• Breakfast restaurants: 227 entry-level

General pattern: Median 50-300 reviews to be "typical"; 500-1,500+ to dominate; metros need ~1.5-2x rural counts; entry-to-dominant gap can be 30-80x.

Source: Local Falcon (local-SEO rank-tracking SaaS vendor).

Caveat: Vendor whitepaper. Category figures locked in a gated interactive tool (not independently verifiable). Quarantined.

Confidence: Single-source / Industry-consensus (direction).

Why this matters for Candid: Best per-category review-bar data available. Use as the per-vertical anchor in the widget's "competitor review gap" output. Frame as a range, not a point.