Google deletes 1.8 million apps from Play Store in 2024 to boost safety: Report

Play Store has seen a major drop in the number of available apps this year. According to research by Appfigures, the total number of apps on the Play Store fell from around 3.4 million at the start of 2024 to about 1.8 million in 2025 so far— a decrease of nearly 47%. In contrast, Apple’s App Store saw a slight increase in available apps, maintaining about 1.64 million apps during the same period. The sharp fall in app numbers is mainly attributed to Google’s efforts to improve the safety of apps on its platform.

The company has been implementing stricter policies and stronger enforcement actions to remove apps that may pose a security risk. Google has also expanded its developer verification which now includes both human reviewers and AI to scan apps. It has introduced mandatory testing for new developer accounts.
As part of its new app verification system, Google blocked 2.36 million policy-violating apps in 2024 alone. This led to the banning of over 158,000 developer accounts during the year.
Other factors may have contributed to the decline as well. For example, new EU rules now require developers to publicly share their addresses, which could have pushed some to remove their apps. However, Apple followed the same rule without seeing a similar drop.
Appfigures also pointed out that the despite the overall drop, the number of new apps launched on the Play Store increased by about 7% year-over-year as of April 2025. Nevertheless, the cleanup could mean a better experience for Android users. With fewer low-quality apps, it may now be easier to find high-quality and trustworthy apps on the Play Store.