I'm working on a new report that digs into the evolution of the App Store and Google Play in 2022. It's not done yet, but I have an interesting insight to share.
I looked at the number of apps and games released by iOS and Android developers in 2022 and to my surprise, 2022 saw a sharp decline in releases on both the App Store and Google Play.
According to the numbers, which I pulled using Explorer, app makers shipped (and the stores accepted) a little over 1.6M mobile apps and games to the App Store and Google Play.
1.2M of those were Android apps and games shipped to Google Play and a little over 400K made their way into the App Store.
You might be surprised by the difference in scale, but that's pretty normal and has been the case for many years now.
1.6M might seem like an impressive number, too. That's about 3 new apps every minute!
But... That's about 12% lower than 2021.
New app releases ebb and flow, but so far the biggest drop was around 3% back in 2019 while 2020 and 2021 saw growth.
Here's the thing - this isn't bad news. At all. This is maturity. If you have an app out there, now's the best time to push it.
Black Friday felt different this year. Not bad, with US downloads in the Shopping category rising 10 in November vs. las...
After years of decline, 2025 marks a dramatic reversal: the App Store is experiencing its biggest wave of new app releas...