What you need to know
- Apple removed more than 26,000 games from China's App Store in a single day.
- That means more than 41,000 apps have now been purged.
- It's the result of a more stringent application of licensing laws in the country.
The latest figures suggest that a total of more than 41,000 apps, including 26,000 games in a single day, have now been removed from China's App Store.
Back in February, Apple warned developers in China that changes to licensing restrictions would come into effect as of June 30 this year. Developers have always been required to have an official license from Chinese regulators in order to publish games on Apple's App Store. However, up until very recently, they were allowed to publish games whilst they waited for their license to be approved. Now, developers must get a license before their game is published. Apple warned developers they would need to update their apps, including official licensing information if they wanted their apps to remain on the App Store. From July 1, Apple started to remove apps that were updated without the correct credentials, as such a steady stream of apps began to disappear from the store.
On August 1, Apple took to actively removing games that had not been updated. According to AppInChina and data from Qimai, this led to more than 26,000 games being purged from the App Store in a single day.
As such, the latest figures suggest that as of August 1, 41,891 apps have been removed in total. As AppInChina's marketing manager Todd Kuhns noted, whilst Apple gave its deadline over a month ago and a big August 1 cull was expected, the numbers were "considerable more than we originally estimated."
