Pixalate’s data science team analyzed 3.8 million apps from the Google Play Store including active and delisted apps, from the first quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2024
LONDON, June 13, 2024 -- Pixalate, the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile Advertising, today released the Q1 2024 Delisted Mobile Apps Report - Apple App Store, analyzing Q1 2024 delisted apps. Delisted apps do not reflect the initiator of the delisting action, i.e., Apple or the app developer.
Pixalate’s report analyzes apps delisted from the Apple App Store during the first quarter of 2024. The research focuses on profile information and various insights observed in the programmatic advertising bid stream, such as the developer’s country of registry, the level of app abandonment, and delisted apps with advertising (an app-ads.txt file).
Here are the top 10 delisted mobile apps in the Apple App Store by number of user ratings:
While some apps are delisted for benign reasons, others are removed as a result of more nefarious behaviors, including ad fraud, and non-compliance with privacy regulations or app store policies. Because apps can be delisted for a variety of reasons, Pixalate is neither asserting nor assigning a reason for any delisting action. Additionally, the initiator of the delisting is not generally publicly-available information, so it is often not possible to know whether the removal was triggered by the app store or the developer.
Apps that violate app store policies, including those without a detected privacy policy, may be delisted from the app stores. However, they can remain on a user’s mobile device, posing potential privacy and security risks. Advertisers who serve ads on such apps may expose themselves to compliance risks even after delisting them.
The delisting of apps is a common practice among app stores to remove low-quality, non-compliant or malicious apps. Apple regularly removes such apps from its app stores.
Download and explore a complimentary copy of the Q1 2024 Delisted Mobile Apps Report - Apple App Store, which includes a list of the top 100 delisted apps by store with programmatic advertising (based on the presence of an app-ads.txt file).
You can also check out the Google Play Store version here.
About Pixalate
Pixalate is a global platform specializing in privacy compliance, ad fraud prevention, and digital ad supply chain data intelligence. Founded in 2012, Pixalate is trusted by regulators, data researchers, advertisers, publishers, ad tech platforms, and financial analysts across the Connected TV (CTV), mobile app, and website ecosystems. Pixalate is accredited by the MRC for the detection and filtration of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT). pixalate.com
Disclaimer
The content of this press release, and the Delisted Mobile Apps Report (the Report), reflect Pixalate's opinions with respect to factors that Pixalate believes may be useful to the digital media industry. Pixalate's opinions are just that, opinions, which means that they are neither facts nor guarantees. Pixalate is sharing this data not to impugn the standing or reputation of any entity, person or app, but, instead, to report findings and trends pertaining to programmatic advertising activity across mobile apps in the time period studied.
