Google Play has halved the number of apps in a year

Google continues a large-scale cleaning of the Google Play app store, focusing on removing malicious or low-quality applications. According to TechCrunch, citing Appfigures analytics, since the beginning of 2024, the number of available applications has decreased from 3.4 million to 1.8 million – by 47%.

At the same time, the number of applications in the Apple App Store has increased slightly – from 1.6 million to 1.64 million.

Active filtering of applications in Google Play began with the introduction of a new policy in July 2024. According to it, the company increased quality requirements: applications that do not work correctly or do not have essential functionality are removed from the store. After August 31, a gradual removal of such applications began, including those that offer minimal functionality, for example, only changing the wallpaper.

Google also confirmed that it uses artificial intelligence to detect potential threats. According to official information, the company has prevented the publication of more than 2.36 million non-policy-compliant apps, and has also blocked 158,000 developer accounts that attempted to publish malicious software.