Nearly 115,000 Apps Removed from Google Play Store in the First Half of 2021

A survey of the Google Play store by SafeBettingSites has revealed that over 115,000 apps have been removed from the android distribution platform. 

A report by the website notes that “nearly 115,000 apps have been removed from the Google Play Store in the first half of 2021, the first decrease in three years.”

SafeBettingSites noted that 65,000 Apps had been taken off the app store in May alone. The removal was as a result of Google putting out a series of policies to regulate app developers.

This led to the removal of thousands of low-quality and policy-violating apps.

In July 2014, SafeBettingSites noted that Android users had about 1.3 million mobile applications to choose from. By March 2018, the number of apps on the store hit a record high of 3.6 million. 

In April, Google introduced a set of new policies and guidelines on how to present Android apps in the Play Store and removed apps with misleading names. This was done to check the quality and trustworthiness of the apps on the platform. 

However, in May alone, the total number of apps was cut down by another 65,000, the highest drop in years. Google’s restrictive policy continued in June, with additional 4,300 apps being removed from the Google Play Store.

The surge in the use of mobile apps is attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and imposed lockdowns in 2021, the play store saw a hike in app downloads, surpassing the surge in revenue and the number of downloads recorded in 2020, with Google Play recording 108.5 billion downloads and $38.6bn in revenue.