Apple is releasing this transparency report as part of its settlement with a group of developers in 2021. As part of the settlement of that class action lawsuit, Apple agreed to publish more details on App Store transparency. A group of Apple shareholders also voted for Apple to publish additional App Store data back in January.
What Apple has provided in this App Store Transparency Report appears to go above and beyond what was required as part of the agreements with shareholders and developers.
App rejections and removals
App submissions rejected: 1,679,694 App submission rejections by App Store Review Guidelines: Safety: 92,598 Performance: 1,018,415 Business: 152,391 Design: 212,464 Legal: 441,972 Other: 79,736 App submissions approved after rejection: 253,466 Apps removed from the App Store: 186,195 Apps removed from the App Store by app category Games: 38,883 Utilities: 20,045 Business: 16,997 Education: 16,509 Lifestyle: 15,171 Entertainment: 11,757 Food & Drink: 8317 Productivity:7314 Travel: 5510 Shopping: 5376 Apps removed from the App Store due to guideline or Developer Program License Agreement (DPLA) violation: 1. Guideline 4.0 — Design: 149,3787 2. DPLA 3.2(f) — Fraud: 32,009 3. Guideline 5.6.0 — Developer Code of Conduct: 1272 4. DPLA 6.3 — Intellectual Property Infringement: 920 5. Guideline 4.3.0 — Spam: 685 6. DPLA 14.8 — Export Control: 332 7. Guideline 4.1.0 — Copycats: 211 8. Guideline 5.0.0 — Legal: 196 9. DPLA 11.1 — Apple Developer Program Membership Expired: 185 10. Guideline 2.1.0 — App Completeness: 92 Apps removed from the App Store subject to government takedown demands: China mainland: 1435 India: 14 Pakistan: 10 Russia: 7 Türkiye: 2 Bulgaria: 1 Cyprus: 1 Hong Kong: 1 Italy: 1 Latvia: 1 Nigeria: 1 Appeals of app removals: China mainland: 5484 United States: 3157 United Kingdom: 817 India: 709 Hong Kong: 465 Vietnam: 416 Japan: 411 Brazil: 376 Türkiye: 368 South Korea: 358 Restorations after appeals of app removals: China mainland: 169 United States: 129 United Kingdom: 36 India: 24 Türkiye: 14 Germany: 13 France: 13 Canada: 12 Hong Kong: 12 Brazil: 11 Vietnam: 11Apple’s documents offer more details on these numbers. In China, for instance, the company emphasizes that there were 1,276 game apps removed for lack of a legally required GRN license. In terms of app rejections for “Designs,” Apple says that this includes guidelines that prohibit copycat apps, apps with minimum functionality, and spam.
“Apps are removed only from storefronts in which the entity demanding removal has jurisdiction, and they remain available in all other storefronts,” Apple says regarding app removals.
Developer account data
Total number of registered Apple developers: 36,974,015 Terminated developer accounts: 428,487 Terminated developer accounts by DPLA provision violated DPLA 3.2(f) — Fraud: 428,249 DPLA 14.8 — Export Control: 238 Terminated developer account appeals: 3338 Terminated developer account restorations: 159“Most developer account terminations that are appealed are removed from the App Store due to fraud. Consequently, most appeals from such terminations are rejected,” Apple explains. “Developers may be terminated from the Apple Developer Program for a number of reasons, the most common of which is when accounts are found to be connected with other terminated developer accounts.”
Customer account stats
Terminated customer accounts: 282,036,628 Value of fraudulent transactions prevented: $2,090,195,480 Average weekly visitors to the App Store: 656,739,889 Average weekly app downloads: 747,873,877 Average weekly app redownloads: 1,539,274,266 Average weekly automatic app updates: 40,876,798,492 Average weekly manual app updates: 512,545,816One interesting thing to keep in mind regarding terminated customer accounts is that this includes anyone with an iCloud account, regardless of whether or not the person owns an Apple product. For instance, anyone is able to visit the iCloud website and make an account.
The full data
Apple has published the full details of the App Store Transparency Report on its website, including an in-depth supplemental CSV file with specific information on every piece of data.