Google and Apple delete up to 11,000 apps every day

Android leads the global mobile operating system market with a dominant 72% share, while iOS captures a solid 27%, according to Statcounter data in July 2025.¹ Both Google and Apple provide users with platforms — Google Play and the App Store — where billions of people discover and download apps every day. However, downloading an app from these stores doesn't always guarantee a safe and secure experience.

Key insights

• The number of apps removed from Google Play due to violations of terms and conditions reached nearly four million in 2024, translating to approximately 11,000 apps each day. The Google Play Annual Transparency Report highlights top reasons for these removals, among which data protection and privacy violations accounted for 55%. Other violations included content, goods, and services ineligible for distribution through Google Play at 16%, data defects at 15%, and scams or fraud at 9%.
• The App Store, widely recognized as a trusted platform, indicated in its 2024 App Store Transparency Report that over 80,000 apps, or about 200 apps per day, were removed. However, this represents a notable decline from 2022, when over 186,000 apps were taken down, translating to approximately 500 daily removals. This data illustrates that the number of removals in 2022 was more than double that of 2024.
• In 2024, the main reasons for app removals from the App Store were the ongoing effort to clean up outdated apps, which accounted for 51%, and fraud, which represented 46%. Fraud-related removals were primarily associated with developers from Vietnam (23%), China (18%), Pakistan (11%), the United States (9%), and India (6%), indicating a concentration in Asia.
• Moreover, nearly 147,000 developer accounts were terminated by Apple in 2024, reflecting a 25% increase from the previous year. Despite this increase, the number was still three times lower than in 2022. Meanwhile, Google reported terminating approximately 155,000 developer accounts in 2024.
• Before being released on these stores, apps must pass a review process. In 2024, a comparison of rejection rates showed that Apple rejected 25% of app submissions on the App Store, while Google maintained a lower rejection rate of 10% on Google Play.

Methodology and sources

This study is based on information provided in the Google Play and App Store transparency reports and supplemental data files. While the main focus is on 2024, the analysis also includes historical data from Apple going back to 2022. The exploration covers various aspects, such as the number of apps removed, the reasons for their removal, the rates of app submissions and rejections before release on the platforms, and the number of terminated developer accounts.

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