Google Play App Purge 47% Decline in Apps

Google Play apps plummeted 47% due to stricter quality standards, removing low-quality & policy-violating apps. This improves user experience & developer visibility, despite strong new releases.

Google Play App Purge: A 47% Decline

• Headline: Google Play sees a massive 47% decline in apps since the start of last year.
• The Numbers: The Android app marketplace shrunk from approximately 3.4 million apps to around 1.8 million.
• Not a Global Trend: Apple's iOS App Store experienced a slight increase in apps during the same period.
• Why the Decline? Google raised the minimum quality requirements for apps.
• What Changed? Google started banning apps with "limited functionality and content," including simple text or PDF apps, single-wallpaper apps, and non-functional apps.
• Google's Confirmation: Google confirmed that its new policies, verification requirements, required app testing, and expanded human reviews were contributing factors.
• AI to the Rescue: Google invested in AI for threat detection to prevent policy-violating apps.
• The Result: Google prevented 2.36 million policy-violating apps from being published and banned over 158,000 developer accounts.
• Good News for Users & Devs? Fewer low-quality apps could mean a better experience for Android users and improved visibility for legitimate developers.
• New Releases Still Strong: Despite the purge, there have been 10,400 releases on Google Play this year, a 7.1% year-over-year increase