Pixalate Abandoned Apps By Country Report Q1 2022: US, India and China Have the Highest Number of “Abandoned” Apps in Apple App, Google Play Stores

After looking at the global state of “abandoned apps” in Q1 2022 – apps that have not been updated in two or more years – Pixalate is diving deeper into its research to show a breakdown of abandoned apps by app developer’s country of registry.

Why is this a problem? Non-updated apps can cause serious data privacy concerns for users.

The top 10 countries ranked by mobile app abandonment

Below are the top 10 countries (based on the number of apps registered in that country) and each country’s rate of app abandonment compared to updates.

The top three global leaders in number of apps abandoned are the U.S. with 127,986, India with 49,134 and China with 34,457.

Though the U.S., China and India have the highest numbers of abandoned apps globally, they do not have the highest abandoned app percentages.

The 5 countries with the highest rate of ‘abandoned apps’

Worldwide, the top five countries with the highest percentages of abandoned apps were Japan, Thailand, Italy, Mexico and Australia.

Country	Number of Apps	% Updated	% Abandoned
Japan	29346	24%	46,54%
Thailand	13226	22,94%	44,81%
Italy	21060	23,76%	43,26%
Mexico	8740	20,70%	41,83%
Australia	19041	25,40%	41,52%

Other key findings include:

36% of apps registered in the U.S. are abandoned and 34% were updated in the last six months.
20% of the apps registered in Japan have not been updated in the last five years.
Only 29% of apps registered to Canada were updated within the last six months, and 27% in the UK.
The top five countries with the most-updated apps are Ireland, The Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland and the U.S. (see table below).

Country	Number of Apps	% Updated*	% Abandoned
Ireland	7828	41,06%	25,97%
The Netherlands	17261	35,61%	35,33%
Switzerland	9108	35,35%	28,51%
Singapore	14411	34,48%	32,50%
United States	322949	33,32%	35,67%

Abandoned apps from countries in the European Union

Looking at the European Union, the top three most abandoned countries are the Czech Republic, Portugal, and Italy, with 48%, 44% and 43% of their apps not updated in 2+ years.

Conversely, the top three most-updated countries in the EU are Cyprus, Ireland, and Malta, with 46%, 41%, and 30% of apps updated in the last six months, respectively.

Abandoned apps in the United Kingdom

According to Pixalate’s data, 38% of apps registered in the UK are abandoned, while only 27% were updated in the last six months.

Abandoned apps from APAC and LATAM countries

In Asian markets, Pixalate found that 40% of the apps registered in China, Russia, and India have not been updated in 2+ years. Apps registered in Hong Kong had a slightly lower “abandoned” rate at 37% than mainland China (40%).

In South America, 35% of the apps registered in Brazil are abandoned, while 29% were updated in the last 6 months.

Efforts to Decrease Abandoned Apps

In April, Apple announced that it would remove apps that hadn’t been updated in three or more years or failed to meet a “minimal download threshold.”

DISCLAIMER

*Updated apps are those apps that have been updated within the last six months, and were active during Q1 2022. Abandoned apps describe those apps that have not been updated in the last two years, and were active during Q1 2022.