Pixalate’s August 2024 Delisted Mobile Apps Report: Over 100K Apps Delisted From Apple App Store & Google Play Store

Pixalate’s data science team analyzed over 100,000 apps found to be delisted from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store during August 2024 to compile this research

London, Sept. 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —  Pixalate, the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile Advertising, today released the August 2024 Delisted Mobile Apps Report – Apple App Store and Google Play Store, analyzing apps that were found to be delisted in August 2024.

The report identifies applications that are no longer available for download 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 or Google, or the app developer. While some apps are delisted for benign reasons, others are removed as a result of 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 risk as well. Because apps can be delisted for a variety of reasons, Pixalate is neither asserting nor assigning 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 removal was triggered by the app store or the developer.

Pixalate’s research focuses on app profile information and 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:

Google Play Store:

• 98.5k+ apps found to be delisted in August 2024
  • 29.4k+ of apps were delisted had open programmatic advertising (app-ads.txt)
• 64% of delisted apps were had no listed country of registration
  • 3.4k+ delisted apps registered in North America
  • 9.3k+ delisted apps were registered in Asia-Pacific (APAC)

Apple App Store:

• 1.6k+ apps found to be delisted in August 2024
  • 12.8k+ of apps were delisted had open programmatic advertising (app-ads.txt)
• 97% of the delisted apps had no listed country of registration in the app store

Top 10 Apps Delisted From Apple App Store in August 2024, as measured by Pixalate:

Here are the top 10 delisted mobile apps in the Apple App Store by number of estimated user ratings:

1. Drizly – Get Drinks Delivered – 163584 est. user ratings
2. Match Chat & Dating app:Hickey – 48953 est. user ratings
3. Cut & Paste Photos – 31960 est. user ratings
4. 飞天大灌篮3D – 7938 est. user ratings
5. Thief Simulator Robbery Game – 266 est. user ratings
6. Classic FM – 135 est. user ratings
7. Cloud Capture – 69 est. user ratings
8. Google Trends for SEO Keyword – 59 est. user ratings
9. Ḟoot Ḟindr – 56 est. user ratings
10. Flixmax – Show Movie Color Box – 23 est. user ratings

Top 10 Apps Delisted From Google Play Store in August 2024, as measured by Pixalate:

Here are the top 10 delisted mobile apps in the Google Play Store by number of downloads:

1. Moto Camera Content – 100M est. downloads
2. Moto Camera 2 – 100M est. downloads
3. Motorola Easy Prefix – 100M est. downloads
4. Moto Suggestions™ – 100M est. downloads
5. Jewels Star – 50M est. downloads
6. Glow Hockey 2 – 50M est. downloads
7. Motorola Modality Services -50M est. downloads
8. Moto Face Unlock – 50M est. downloads
9. Special Ops Impossible Mission – 10M est. downloads
10. Counter Terrorist Special Ops – 10M est. downloads

Download the full reports

Download and explore a complimentary copy of the August 2024 Delisted Mobile Apps Report – Apple App Store and Google Play Store, which includes a list of the top 50 delisted apps by store with programmatic advertising (based on the presence of an app-ads.txt file).

About Pixalate

Pixalate is a global platform specializing in privacy compliance, ad fraud prevention, and digital ad supply chain data intelligence. Founded in 2012, Pixalate is trusted by regulators, data researchers, advertisers, publishers, ad tech platforms, and financial analysts across the Connected TV (CTV), mobile app, and website ecosystems. Pixalate is accredited by the MRC for the detection and filtration of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT). pixalate.com

Disclaimer

The content of this press release, and the Delisted Mobile Apps Report (the Report), reflect Pixalate’s opinions with respect to factors that Pixalate believes may be useful to the digital media industry. Pixalate’s opinions are just that, opinions, which means that they are neither facts nor guarantees. Pixalate is sharing this data not to impugn the standing or reputation of any entity, person or app, but, instead, to report findings and trends pertaining to programmatic advertising activity across mobile apps in the time period studied.

CONTACT: Nina Talcott
ntalcott@pixalate.com