Pixalate's Q3 2022 Delisted Mobile Apps Tracker for Google and Apple: 350k Apps Removed From Google (211k+) and Apple (137k+) App Stores; 13% Had No Detected Privacy Policy

Apps delisted in Q3 2022 had over 108 million user ratings prior to delisting, but the majority of them (81%) had no detected app country of registry. From Q1-Q3 2022, Google and Apple combined have delisted over 1.1 million apps.

PALO ALTO, Calif. and LONDON, Oct. 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pixalate, the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile Advertising, today released the Q3 2022 Delisted Mobile Apps Report, containing insights about mobile apps removed from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The analysis helps developers and advertisers recognize potential threats of privacy and compliance breaches.

Pixalate analyzed more than 5.1 million mobile apps across the Google and Apple app stores, and found 349,799 were delisted in Q3 2022, a decrease of almost 42% from the 592K delisted in Q2 2022. According to Pixalate's data, Google and Apple combined have delisted over 1.1 million apps so far in 2022.

Through analysis of delisted Google Play Store and Apple App Store apps in Q3 2022, Pixalate found that:

• ~350k delisted apps across Google (211k+), Apple app stores (137k+) in Q3 2022
• 7% of all apps across both Google & Apple App stores were delisted in Q3 2022, down from 11% in Q2 2022
• 39% increase of Google apps delisted from Q2 to Q3 2022, and 69% decrease in Apple
• $11MM in programmatic ad spend is estimated for Q3 across all delisted apps, down from $12.4MM in Q2
• 13% of delisted apps had no detected privacy policy
• 35% of delisted apps requested personal info access via sensitive permissions
• 81% of delisted apps had no identifiable country of registry in Q3 2022 (vs. 70% among apps still available for download)
• 50%+ of delisted apps on Apple were abandoned (2+ yrs. no update) vs. 26% on Google, in Q3 2022
• 24.5k+ of delisted apps in Q3 2022 were likely child-directed, 4k+ of which had no detected privacy policy, indicating a higher risk of potential COPPA violations.

Apple and Google have an important role to play in protecting consumers' online privacy, part of which is setting and maintaining consumer privacy standards across the 5.1 million apps available for download in their stores. While removing apps from a store prevents future downloads, those apps can remain installed on users' devices and continue to collect personal information. In Q3 2022, Pixalate found 13% of the delisted apps had no detected privacy policy despite the fact that 35% of delisted apps requested personal info access via sensitive permissions, posing a potential opportunity for unchecked consumer tracking.

The accompanying graphic shows the top 10 most popular apps delisted from the Google Play Store in Q3 2022, and you can download the full report as well as a list of the top 1,000 most popular delisted apps from each app store here.

Pixalate's Q3 2022 Delisted Mobile Apps Report includes:

• The scale of delisted apps dating back to Q1 2021
• Sensitive information shared by delisted apps with advertisers
• Delisted apps broken down by how long since the app had last been updated
• Likely child-directed apps that were delisted
• Country of origin of delisted apps
• Delisted apps by app category
• List of the most popular delisted apps

Download a copy of the Q3 2022 Delisted Mobile Apps Report for free here. You will also be provided with a list of the top 1,000 most popular apps that were delisted in Q3 2022.

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Pixalate is the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile Advertising. We work 24/7 to guard your reputation and grow your media value. Pixalate offers the only system of coordinated solutions across display, app, video, and OTT/CTV for better detection and elimination of ad fraud. Pixalate is an MRC-accredited service for the detection and filtration of sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) across desktop and mobile web, mobile in-app, and OTT/CTV advertising. www.pixalate.com

The content of this press release, and the Q3 2022 Delisted Mobile Apps Report (the "Report"), reflect Pixalate's opinions with respect to the factors that Pixalate believes can be useful to the digital media industry. Pixalate's opinions are just that, opinions, which means that they are neither facts nor guarantees; and neither this press release nor the Report are intended to impugn the standing or reputation of any entity, person or app, but instead, to report findings and trends pertaining to apps delisted from the official Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

SOURCE Pixalate