Apple Publishes First-Ever App Store Transparency Report

Apple today published an inaugural App Store Transparency Report, something that the company agreed to provide to developers as part of a 2021 lawsuit settlement. Under the terms of the settlement, Apple promised to provide developers with meaningful statistics about the app review process, including the number of apps that were rejected, the number of customer and developer accounts deactivated, the number of apps removed from the ‌App Store‌, data regarding search queries and results, and more.

iOS App Store General Feature Sqaure Complement
All of the information that developers requested is in the 2022 ‌App Store‌ Transparency Report and the supplemental data that accompanies it, with the report available for download from Apple's legal site.

In 2022, there were 1,783,232 apps on the ‌App Store‌, with 6,101,913 total app submissions received and 1,679,694 apps rejected for various reasons like safety, performance, design, and legal. Apple provides numbers on the specific ‌App Store‌ guidelines that were violated by rejected apps, with the highest number of single rule rejections (149,378) due to violations of the Design 4.0 rule and the DPLA 3.2 Fraud rule (32,009).

A total of 253,466 app submissions were approved after rejection when developers worked with Apple to resolve issues, and 186,195 apps were removed from the ‌App Store‌ for breaking the ‌App Store‌ rules. The majority of apps removed from the ‌App Store‌ were games, followed by Utilities, Business, and Education.

Apple outlines the total number of apps removed from the ‌App Store‌ due to government takedowns, and China is at the top of the list. The Chinese government asked Apple to remove 1,435 apps, but 1,276 of those apps were games that were removed for not having the GRN license that China requires.

Apple removed 14 apps at the request of India's government, 10 apps for Pakistan, and seven apps for Russia. In other countries including Türkiye, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Italy, Latvia, and Nigeria, fewer than two apps were removed at the government's request.

Developers appealed 18,412 app removals in total, and Apple restored just 616 apps. Apple says that apps that are appealed were typically pulled from the ‌App Store‌ for fraud or illegality, which is why the rejected appeal number is so high.

There are 36,974,015 registered developers, and in 2022, Apple terminated 428,487 developer accounts. According to Apple, developers are removed from the Apple Developer Program "for a number of reasons," but most commonly because of accounts that are connected with other terminated developer accounts. 3,338 developers appealed their ‌App Store‌ bans, and Apple reinstated just 159 accounts. Again, Apple says that this is because "most developer account terminations that are appealed are removed from the ‌App Store‌ due to fraud," so Apple rejects most of them.

282,036,628 customer accounts were terminated, but that number does incorporate all accounts created, even those made on the website by non-iPhone and iPad users. There were 656,739,889 average weekly visitors to the ‌App Store‌ and 747,873,877 average weekly app downloads. Customer accounts searched the ‌App Store‌ 373,211,396 times on average, and 1,399,741 apps appeared in the top 10 results of at least 1000 searches. Additional breakdowns can be found in Apple's supplemental data.

Apple plans to provide these ‌App Store‌ Transparency Reports to developers on an annual basis going forward.

Top Rated Comments

vegetassj4 Avatar
7 months ago
Store Transparency...well duhh....the've had that for a while.

****ducks****



Attachment Image
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
no_idea Avatar
7 months ago

Why I never use the App store these days:

Wanted to install the MS Authenticator app. Did a search, first hit is "Authenticator," which is NOT the MS app, but uses a very similar icon and branding. Not realizing this, I installed it, launched, and next thing I know I'm being prompted to approve a criminally expensive subscription. Luckily, I realized my mistake.

**** you, Apple. Your app store is a mess. Clean it up.
You could have simply looked at who the publisher was.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
klasma Avatar
7 months ago
In other countries including Türkiye, Bulgaria, Cypress, Hong Kong, Italy, Latvia, and Nigeria, fewer than two apps were removed at the government's request.

So… exactly one app?
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Attirex Avatar
7 months ago
Why I never use the App store these days:

Wanted to install the MS Authenticator app. Did a search, first hit is "Authenticator," which is NOT the MS app, but uses a very similar icon and branding. Not realizing this, I installed it, launched, and next thing I know I'm being prompted to approve a criminally expensive subscription. Luckily, I realized my mistake.

**** you, Apple. Your app store is a mess. Clean it up.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
7 months ago
It's great that Apple is being transparent about it at least.

When is Apple going to ban Facebook from the App Store tho?
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
myusernamedoesnotmatter Avatar
7 months ago
I wonder how many of those Apps are pay-to-win match three candy crush ripoffs.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

apple card 1

Apple Ending Apple Card Partnership With Goldman Sachs

Tuesday November 28, 2023 3:09 pm PST by
Apple is ending its credit card partnership with Goldman Sachs, according to The Wall Street Journal. Apple plans to stop working with Goldman Sachs in the next 12 to 15 months, and it is not yet clear if Apple has established a new partnership for the Apple Card. Apple and Goldman Sachs will dissolve their entire consumer partnership, including the Apple Card and the Apple Savings account....
iOS 17

Everything New in iOS 17.2 Beta 4

Tuesday November 28, 2023 12:18 pm PST by
Apple is wrapping up development on iOS 17.2, with the update expected to come out in December. While we're getting to the end of the beta testing period, Apple is still tweaking features and adding new functionality. We've rounded up everything new in the fourth beta of iOS 17.2. Default Notification Sound Under Sounds & Haptics, there's a new "Default Alerts" section that allows you to ...
ios 17 namedrop

Police Departments and News Sites Spreading Misinformation About How iOS 17 NameDrop Feature Works

Monday November 27, 2023 5:11 pm PST by
Apple with iOS 17.1 and watchOS 10.1 introduced a new NameDrop feature that is designed to allow users to place Apple devices near one another to quickly exchange contact information. Sharing contact information is done with explicit user permission, but some news organizations and police departments have been spreading misinformation about how NameDrop functions. As noted by The Washington...
All New CarPlay Five New Features Article 2

What to Expect From All-New CarPlay, Still Listed as Coming 'Late 2023'

Tuesday November 28, 2023 7:44 am PST by
At WWDC in June 2022, Apple previewed the next generation of CarPlay, promising deeper integration with vehicle functions like A/C and FM radio, support for multiple displays across the dashboard, increased personalization, and more. Apple's website still says the first vehicles with support for the next-generation CarPlay experience will be announced in "late 2023," but it has not shared...
iOS 17

iOS 17.1.2 Update for iPhone Likely to Be Released This Week

Monday November 27, 2023 8:24 am PST by
Apple will likely release iOS 17.1.2 this week, based on mounting evidence of the software in our website's analytics logs in recent days. As a minor update, iOS 17.1.2 should be focused on bug fixes, but it's unclear exactly which issues might be addressed. Some users have continued to experience Wi-Fi issues on iOS 17.1.1, so perhaps iOS 17.1.2 will include the same fix for Wi-Fi...
Apple 5G Modem Feature Triad

Apple to Discontinue Custom 5G Modem Development, Claim Reports

Wednesday November 29, 2023 4:19 am PST by
Apple is discontinuing in-house modem development after several unsuccessful attempts to perfect its own custom 5G modem chip, according to unconfirmed reports coming out of Asia. According to the operator of news aggregator account "yeux1122" on the Naver blog, supply chain sources related to Apple's 5G modem departments claim that the company's attempts to develop its own modem have...
Apple Logo

Apple Discontinued These 5 Products This Year

Monday November 27, 2023 7:03 am PST by
As the end of 2023 nears, now is a good opportunity to look back at some of the devices and accessories that Apple discontinued throughout the year. Apple products discontinued in 2023 include the iPhone 13 mini, 13-inch MacBook Pro, MagSafe Battery Pack, MagSafe Duo Charger, and leather accessories. Also check out our lists of Apple products discontinued in 2022 and 2021. iPhone Mini ...
Google Drive

Some Google Drive Users' Files Have Mysteriously Vanished

Tuesday November 28, 2023 3:55 am PST by
Google Drive users have been warned not to disconnect their account within the Google Drive for desktop app, after a spate of reports of files going missing from the cloud service. Alarm bells began ringing last week on Google's community support site when some users reported files mysteriously disappearing from Google Drive, with some posters claiming six or more months of data had...