14 DAY TRIAL // The number of apps available on the Google Play Store has declined substantially in the last four years, according to new research, and while the numbers might be concerning for some, they actually highlight a welcome improvement for the app store.
More specifically, an analysis conducted by tradingplatforms.com indicates that the number of apps published on the Google Play Store dropped from 36 million apps back in March 2018 to fewer than 2.6 million apps in March this year.
And in case you’re wondering how come the app store lost 1 million apps in 4 years, it all comes down to Google’s efforts to protect users and prevent apps from violating its policies.
Not bad news at all
The analysis shows that Google removed nearly 1 million apps because they violated its terms of service, but even so, the Google Play store remains the largest app store around today.
“Google Play’s almost 2.6M Android apps listing makes it the largest app store in listing terms. Following in the second spot is the Apple App Store. This one has over 2.3 M applications for devices running on the iOS technology,” the research reveals.
“Notwithstanding the dominance of the two, other app stores are also jostling for market share. For instance, the Amazon App store supplies its customers with about 500K android apps. Its best-sellers are in utilities, gaming, and education.”
So there you go, the Google Play Store has indeed lost some 1 million apps in the last 48 months, but this isn’t by any means a reason to be concerned on Android. If anything, these numbers show that Google’s security systems are making a huge difference, as the company seems to be very effective when it comes to removing apps that violate its store policies and eventually pose a threat to users.