DELISTED

MOBILEAPPSQ22024:

GooglePlayAppStore

ResearchReport

AnanalysisofdelistedappsacrosstheGooglePlayAppstoreinQ22024

TABLEOFCONTENTS

KeyStats 4-6

PotentialFactors 7-10

Developers’Country&Region 11-13

Categories 14-15

Top10DelistedApps 13-14

MethodologyandDisclaimer 15-18

Theimportanceofdelistedmobileapps:

Appsthathavebeenremovedfromo?cialappstoreshavethepotentialtojeopardizeconsumerprivacyandtheoverallhealthoftheappecosystem.Despitetheirdelisting,theseappsmightremaininstalledonusers'devices,activelygatheringpersonalinformation.Moreover,thein?uxofadvertisingrevenuetowardstheseappscanmotivateandprolongtheseprivacyconcerns.Thedelistingofappsisacommonpracticeamongappstoresattimestoremovelow-quality,non-compliantormaliciousapps.Googleregularlyremovessuchappsfromitsappstores.Whilesomeappsaredelistedforbenignreasons,othersareremovedasaresultofmorenefariousbehaviors,includingadfraudandnon-compliancewithprivacyregulations.Theremoval(ordelisting)oftheseappsfromappstoresdoesnotnecessarilymeanthattheydisappearfromuserdevices.

AsperPixalate’sdata

,theycanstillremainonuserdevicesandcontinuetorunads,leadingtobrandsafetyrisks,malwareandadfraudconcerns.

DELISTEDMOBILEAPPSINQ22024-GOOGLEPLAYSTORE|?2024PIXALATE|PIXALATE.COM2

AlbaDelVillar

Chief

Economist

pixolote

HawnSmith

AdFraudProductManager

pixolote

DELISTEDMOBILEAPPSINQ22024-GOOGLEPLAYSTORE|?2024PIXALATE|PIXALATE.COM3

Forthe?rsttimeinthehistoryofthisreport,thenumberofquarterlydelistedmobileappsinGooglePlayreached1.1millioninQ22024.Thisrepresentsasigni?cantincrease,with34%ofGooglePlayappsbeingdelistedinasinglequarter,comparedtoanaveragedelistingrateof8%inpreviousquarters,afourfoldincrease.

InQ22024,74%ofdelistedappswere'abandoned'(notupdatedinovertwoyears),upfromjust25%ayearagoinQ22023.Thus,only15%ofavailableappsinQ22024wereabandoned,asubstantialdecreasefromover40%lastyear.Furthermore,433k(39%)delistedappsinQ22024hadnotbeenupdatedinthelastfouryears,comparedtojust6%inQ22023.

Additionally,18kdelistedappshad'wallpaper'or'screensaver'keywordsintheirtitles.However,thisrepresentsonly37%ofthetotalnumberoftheseapps,as30klowfunctionalityappswiththesetitlesarestillavailablefordownloadfromGooglePlayasoftheendofQ22024

RecentchangestoGooglePlaypolicies,announcedonJuly17,2024,haveintroducedstricterstandardsforappquality,transparency,andsecurity.Theseupdateshavelikelycontributedtothesigni?cantincreaseinappdelistingsandthereductionoflow-functionalityandabandonedappsontheplatform.

EXECUTIVESUMMARY

DELISTEDMOBILEAPPSINQ22024-GOOGLEPLAYSTORE|?2024PIXALATE|PIXALATE.COM4

No.ofdelistedapps

CumulativeQ12021-Q22024

Rateofdelistings(%)

pixrclcate

34%(1.1M)ofappsdelistedinQ22024inGooglePlay,thehighestvalueeverdetected*

34%

ofGooglePlayappsdelistedinonesinglequarter(Q22024),showingthehighestno.ofdelistedapps(1.1M)inthelastthreeyears.Theaveragerateofdelistingsinpreviousquartersis7.9%,x4lowerthanthatinQ22024,accordingtoPixalate’sdata.

Wanttoseealltheapps?Schedulea

demo:

pixal.at/demo

*Source:GooglePlay;Q12021-Q22024;asmeasuredbyPixalate

5

159k+

TotalnumberofdelistedappsinGooglePlaywithads(ads.txt?le)inQ2

2024,accordingtoPixalate’sdata.

Wantmoredata?Scheduleademo:

pixal.at/demo

786KDELISTEDMOBILEAPPSWITHADSSINCEQ12022

GOOGLEPLAYSTORE;Q12022TOQ22024;ASMEASUREDBYPIXALATE

No.ofdelistedappswithads(anapp-ads.txt?ledetected)CumulativeQ12022-Q22024

pixclcte

Q22024

DELISTEDMOBILEAPPSINQ22024-GOOGLEPLAYSTORE|?2024PIXALATE|PIXALATE.COM6

DELISTEDAPPS

POTENTIALFACTORSFORDELISTING

Q22024

1M

GooglePlayStoreappsthathad<100kestimateddownloadspriorto

delistinginQ22024,accordingtoPixalate’sdata.

Wantmoredata?Scheduleademo:

pixal.at/demo

GOOGLE:96%OFDELISTEDAPPSHAD<100KDOWNLOADS

GOOGLEPLAYSTORE;ASOFTHEENDOFQ22024;ASMEASUREDBYPIXALATE

1.1M

22K

98%

Lessthan100k

estimateddownloads

2%

Morethan100k

estimateddownloads

pixclcte

DELISTEDMOBILEAPPSINQ22024-GOOGLEPLAYSTORE|?2024PIXALATE|PIXALATE.COM8

SuperAbandonedApps

Lastupdatedate+4years

AbandonedApps

pixrclcate

pixrclcate

date+2years

Lastupdate

GooglePlay:ThemajorityofdelistedappsinQ2

2024wereabandoned

74%

%ofdelistedGooglePlayappswereabandoned(notupdatedin+2yrs.),comparedtoonly25%inQ22023.Asaresult,just15%ofavailableappsinQ22024wereabandoned,downfromover40%lastyear,accordingtoPixalate’sdata.

433K(39%)delistedappsinQ22024werenotupdatedinthelast4yearscomparedto6%inQ22023;Only5%ofthese“super-abandoned”appsremainavailabletodownloadasofQ22024

Source:GooglePlay;Q22023-Q22024;asmeasuredbyPixalate

9

37%(18k)of“Wallpaper”appsdelistedinQ22024

No.ofdelistedappsinGooglePlay

pixrclcate

18K

No.ofdelistedappswith“wallpaper”or“screensaver”keywordsintheirtitle,asofQ22024.However,30KlowfunctionalityappswiththesetitlesstillappeartobeavailabletodownloadfromGooglePlayasofQ22024,accordingtoPixalate’sdata.

Wanttoseealltheapps?Schedulea

demo:

pixal.at/demo

Source:GooglePlay;Q12023-Q22024;asmeasuredbyPixalate

10

DELISTEDAPPS

DEVELOPERCOUNTRY

Q22024

AppsregisteredinNorthAmericadelistedatthelowestrateofanyregion

pixclcte

Rateofdelistings(%)

Developerregion(region)ofregistration

22%

%ofappsregisteredinNorthAmericathatweredelistedinQ22024,addingupto48Kdelistedapps,accordingtoPixalate’sdata.

Wanttoseealltheapps?Schedulea

demo:

pixal.at/demo

Source:GooglePlay;Q22024;asmeasuredbyPixalate

12

27%ofappsregisteredinChinadelistedinQ22024

pixclcte

Rateofdelistings(%)

Developercountryofregistration

27%

%ofappsregisteredinChinathatweredelistedinQ22024,addingupto12Kapps,accordingtoPixalate’sdata.

Wanttoseealltheapps?Schedulea

demo:

pixal.at/demo

Source:GooglePlay;Top5countriesbyno.ofdelistedappsinQ22024;asmeasuredbyPixalate

13

DELISTEDAPPS

CATEGORIES

Q22024

Rateofdelistings(%)

CategorieswithlowestrateinQ22024

delistings(%)

highestrateinQ22024

Rateof

Categorieswith

pixrclcate

pixclcte

50%ofappsinthe“Libraries”categoryweredelistedinQ22024;thecategorywiththehighestrateofdelistings

25%

%ofGooglePlayappsinthe“Finance”categoryweredelistedinQ22024,thecategorywiththelowestrateofdelistings,accordingtoPixalate’sdata.

Wanttoseealltheapps?Scheduleademo:

pixal.at/demo

Source:GooglePlay;Q22024;appstoreprimarycategory;asmeasuredbyPixalate

15

DELISTEDAPPS

TOP10

Q22024

GOOGLEPLAYSTORE:TOP10DELISTEDAPPS(bydownloads)

DELISTEDAPPSWITHADS.TXTFILESDETECTEDASMEASUREDBYPIXALATE;ASOFTHEENDOFQ22024

Rank

Title

AppID

Downloads

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

RessoMusic-Songs&Lyrics

XOSLauncher-CoolStylish

RealFootball

Noizz:videoeditorwithmusic

HiOSLauncher-Fast

CraftWorld-MasterBlock3D

BlockCrazyRoboWorld

Karaoke-SingUnlimitedSongs

DownloadManagerforAndroid

Biugo-videomaker&videoeditor

com.moonvideo.android.resso

com.transsion.XOSLauncher

com.gameloft.android.ANMP.Gl

oftR7HM

com.yy.biu

com.transsion.hilauncher

com.build.vip.realm.city

com.crazy.block.robo.monster.cli?s.craft

com.famousbluemedia.yokee

com.tt.android.dm.view

com.yy.biugo.lite

100M

100M

100M

100M

100M

100M

100M

50M

50M

50M

DELISTEDMOBILEAPPSINQ22024-GOOGLEPLAYSTORE|?2024PIXALATE|PIXALATE.COM17

METHODOLOGY&DISCLAIMER

METHODOLOGY

General

Pixalate’sdatascienceandanalystteamanalyzedmorethan3.4MactiveappsanddelistedappsfromtheGooglePlayStoreinQ22024.ThisreportcontainsdatafromQ12021toQ22024.DataisderivedfromcrawlsoftherespectiveappstoresperformedbyPixalateoroneofPixalate’sthirdpartylicensors.

DelistedApps

Appscanbedelistedforavarietyofreasons,forpurposeslikebreachingappstorepoliciestomorebenignreasons,suchasthedeveloper'sdecisiontowithdrawtheapp.Pixalateisneitherassertingnorassigningareasonforanydelistingaction.Additionally,theinitiatorofthedelistingisnotgenerallypublicly-availableinformation,soitisoftennotpossibletoknowwhethertheremovalwastriggeredbytheappstoreorthedeveloper.Pixalateissharingthisdatanottoimpugnthestandingorreputationofanyperson,entityorapp,but,instead,toreportopinionsastheypertaintodelistedAndroidapps.

CountryofRegistration

Thecountryofregistrationforagivenappisdeterminedonlyifa)theapphasaphysicaladdresspublishedinitsappstorepage,orotherwiseb)fromtheregistrantphysicaladdressofthepublisherdomainlistedintheappstorepageexcludingprivatelyregisteredones.Ifnoneisavailable,thephysicaladdressassociatedwithanappcannotbedetermined.Sometimes,thesamedevelopermaylistdi?erentcountriesofregistrationfordi?erentapps.CountryofregistrationisusedtodeterminetheregionasNorthAmerica,EMEA,APACorLATAM.

Downloadsanduserratings

Top10listsreferredtowithinthisreportaredeterminedbasedonthepublishednumberofdownloads;dataisderivedfromcrawlsoftherespectiveappstoresperformedbyPixalateoroneofPixalate’sthirdpartylicensors.

DELISTEDMOBILEAPPSINQ22024-GOOGLEPLAYSTORE|?2024PIXALATE|PIXALATE.COM19

METHODOLOGY

Ads.txt

Theads.txtinitiativefromthe

IABTechLab

waslaunchedwithamissionto“Increasetransparencyintheprogrammaticadvertisingecosystem”byallowingpublishersandothertra?crightsowners“topubliclydeclarethecompaniestheyauthorizetoselltheirdigitalinventory”withaprimarygoalofreducingappmisrepresentation,or“spoo?ng.”

AbandonedApps

Pixalateusesthedateonwhichanappwaslastupdatedtodeterminethedegreeofapparentabandonment.Forhigh-leveldatapoints,Pixalateconsidersanapptohaveaheightenedriskof“abandonment”ifithasnotbeenupdatedinatleasttwoyears(asoftheendofQ22024).Theremayalsobeincreasedprivacyrisksassociatedwithabandonedapps,suchasnotcomplyingwiththelatestprivacylaws.

AppCategorization:VPN,Cleaner,andScreensaverApps

Forthisreport,Pixalatesearchesforanyofthefollowingwordsinthe

app●title:

“Screensaver”apps:“Screensaver”,“Wallpaper”

●“VPN”apps:“VPN”

●“Cleaner”apps:“Clean”,“Cleaner”,“Virus”,“Antivirus”,“JunkFiles”

Rateofdelistings(%)

Forthisreport,Pixalatecomputestherateofdelistingsastheratioofdelistedapps,attheendofthecorrespondingquarter,relativetothetotalnumberofappsinthestoreavailabletodownloadatthebeginningofthequarter.

DELISTEDMOBILEAPPSINQ22024-GOOGLEPLAYSTORE|?2024PIXALATE|PIXALATE.COM20

DISCLAIMER

Thecontentofthisreportre?ectsPixalate’sopinionswithrespecttothefactorsthatPixalatebelievescanbeusefultothedigitalmediaindustry.AnydatasharedisgroundedinPixalate’sproprietarytechnologyandanalytics,whichPixalateiscontinuouslyevaluatingandupdating.Anyreferencestooutside