Over the past year, Google has been cracking down on apps in its Android app store, resulting in a significant reduction in the number of available apps.
According to a recent report from JS, the Google Play Store has seen a decline from 3.4 million apps to approximately 1.8 million apps since the beginning of 2024. This represents a 47% decrease in the total number of apps accessible to Android users.
In contrast, Apple’s iOS App Store experienced a slight increase during the same period, growing from 1.6 million to 1.64 million apps.
Reasons for the Decline of Android Apps
The influx of low-quality and potentially fraudulent apps on the Google Play Store due to Google’s lenient app review process has made it challenging for legitimate developers to stand out.
To address this issue, Google raised its minimum requirements for apps in July 2024, aiming to eliminate apps with limited functionality and content rather than just broken apps.
Google’s Response to the Decrease in Apps
In response to the declining number of apps, Google has implemented AI threat detection and strengthened privacy regulations to combat harmful and policy-violating apps on the Play Store.
As a result of these efforts, Google rejected a significant number of apps, totaling 2.36 million, and banned over 158,000 developer accounts to prevent the distribution of potentially harmful apps to Android users.
Despite the decrease in apps, app releases have increased by 7.1% year over year as of April. This may indicate a resurgence of high-quality apps and games on the Google Play Store rather than a return to the previous state of the platform.
