Pixalate research finds 2.6 million apps were delisted from the Google Play Store (2.1 million) and Apple App Store (500k) in 2024
London, Jan. 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pixalate, a leading global platform for ad fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics, today released the December 2024 Delisted Mobile Apps Report – Apple App Store and Google Play Store, analyzing apps that were found to be delisted in December 2024.
The report identifies applications that are no longer downloadable from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, according to Pixalate’s data. Delisted apps do not reflect the initiator of the delisting action, i.e., Apple, Google, or the app developer. While some apps are delisted for benign reasons, others are removed due to more nefarious behaviors, including ad fraud and non-compliance with privacy regulations or app store policies, which may cause advertisers to be exposed to potential financial or legal risks.
Because apps can be delisted for various reasons, Pixalate neither asserts nor assigns a reason for any delisting action. Additionally, the initiator of the delisting is not generally publicly available information, so it is often not possible to know whether the app store or the developer triggered the removal.
Pixalate’s research focuses on app profile information. It provides various insights observed in the programmatic advertising bid stream, such as the developer’s country of registry, the level of app abandonment, and the number of delisted apps with advertising (an app-ads.txt file).
Key Findings: Delisted Mobile Apps (December 2024)
Google Play Store
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Millions of Apps Delisted: 2.1M total delisted in 2024
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63,803 apps delisted in December 2024
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383,102 apps delisted had open programmatic advertising in 2024 (i.e., an app-ads.txt file)
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13,051 apps with app-ads.txt were removed in December 2024
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Ghost Apps: 81% of apps delisted from the Google Play Store in December 2024 had no listed country of registration
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3.2k+ delisted apps were registered in North America
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4.6k apps delisted in December 2024 were registered in Asia-Pacific (APAC), the most among global regions
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United States-registered apps had the highest number of delistings in the Google Play Store (3k+), followed by India (1.3k)
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Apple App Store
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Apple App Store Exodus: 336.5k apps delisted in December 2024, representing 68% of all apps delisted in 2024
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Q4 2024 saw the most apps delisted from the Apple App Store (337k) since Q2 2022 (439k)
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40k apps delisted had open programmatic advertising in 2024 (app-ads.txt)
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27k apps with apps-ads.txt were removed in December 2024
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Ghost Apps: 89% of apps delisted from the Apple App Store in December 2024 had no listed country of registration
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12.6k apps delisted in December 2024 were registered in North America (NA), the most among global regions
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United States-registered apps had the highest number of delistings in the Apple App Store Store (11.4k+), followed by China with (4.4k)
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