Pixalate’s Q4 2023 Delisted Mobile Apps Report - Google Play Store: 386k Apps Delisted

LONDON, UK, Feb. 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pixalate, the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile Advertising, today released the Q4 2023 Delisted Mobile Apps Report - Google Play Store, analyzing Q4 2023 delisted apps. Delisted apps do not reflect the initiator of the delisting action, i.e., Google or the app developer.

Pixalate’s report analyzes apps delisted from the Google Play Store during the fourth quarter of 2023. The research focuses on profile information and various insights observed in the programmatic advertising bid stream, such as the developer’s country of registry, the level of app abandonment, and delisted apps with advertising (an app-ads.txt file).
Key Findings:

• 386k apps delisted in Q4 2023 
  • From 2021-2023, 3.4M mobile apps were delisted, nearly equal to the current number of downloadable apps (3.5M).
• Of the apps delisted in Q4 2023, 8% were abandoned (not updated for more than two years) before their removal
• In Q4 2023, 30% (117k) of the apps delisted had programmatic advertising (an app-ads.txt file detected)
  • 547k accumulated delisted apps with ads since Q1 2022
• 3.2k “VPN” and 12.6k “Wallpaper & Screensaver” apps delisted from the Google Play Store in Q4 2023
• In Q4 2023, 11.6% of apps registered in Russia were delisted, while 5.5% of apps registered in the U.S. were delisted

Top 10 Apps Delisted From Google Play Store in Q4 2023:

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

1. Glow Hockey — 100M downloads
2. MOD-MASTER for Minecraft PE — 100M downloads
3. Clean Master Ultra — 100M downloads
4. Samsung Wallet (Samsung Pay) — 100M downloads
5. DEER HUNTER CLASS — 100M downloads
6. Messenger Go: Messages & Feed — 50M downloads
7. Video downloader for IG — 50M downloads
8. Download Music Mp3 — 50M downloads
9. Amazon for Tablets — 50M downloads
10. Prize Claw — 50M downloads

Apps that violate app store policies, including those that do not have a detectable privacy policy, may be delisted from the app stores. However, they can remain on a user’s mobile device, posing potential privacy and security risks. Advertisers who serve ads on such apps may expose themselves to compliance risks even after delisting them.

The delisting of apps is a common practice among app stores to remove low-quality, non-compliant or malicious apps. Google regularly removes such apps from its app stores.

Download the full report

Download and explore a complimentary copy of the Q4 2023 Delisted Mobile Apps Report - Google Play Store, which includes a list of the top 100 delisted apps by store with programmatic advertising (based on the presence of an app-ads.txt file).
You can also check out the Apple App Store version here.


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.

Nina Talcott
Pixalate Inc.
[email protected]