Your Android Can Download Fewer Apps Than in 2023, Here’s Why That’s Good
The number of apps available on the Google Play Store has seen a significant decline compared to last year, reflecting Google’s ongoing efforts to clean up its platform. According to recent data, the Play Store now hosts far fewer apps than it did at the beginning of 2024. Specifically, the total number of available apps dropped from approximately 3.4 million in early 2024 to about 1.8 million by April, marking a nearly 47% reduction.
This insight comes from app analytics firm Appfigures, which shared the findings in collaboration with TechCrunch. The report highlights that this drop is unique to Google’s app ecosystem, as Apple’s App Store has actually experienced a slight growth in available apps during the same period—rising modestly from 1.6 million to 1.64 million. This suggests that the reduction in apps on the Play Store is a deliberate move by Google rather than part of a wider industry trend affecting all mobile platforms.
At first glance, seeing fewer apps might seem like a drawback for Android users who enjoy having a vast selection of apps to choose from. However, this reduction is largely beneficial for most people. A large portion of the apps removed were low-quality or non-functional, often offering little real value and sometimes even causing problems for users. Over the past year, Google has focused heavily on improving the overall quality of apps and games available on its store, making it a safer and more enjoyable place to find new software.
Historically, Google’s app approval process was less strict than Apple’s, which allowed many subpar apps to slip through. Up until July 2024, Google mainly removed apps that were outright broken or failed to function properly. But starting then, Google tightened its quality control by banning apps that provided minimal content or had very limited functionality. This change has helped clean up the Play Store significantly.
Google confirmed to TechCrunch that the decrease in app numbers is partly due to these updated quality standards. However, they also mentioned other contributing factors, such as increasing the use of human reviewers for app evaluations and imposing new verification rules on developers, which have further refined the app ecosystem.
Interestingly, despite the overall reduction in available apps, there was a 7.1% increase in the number of new apps published in April 2025 compared to April 2024. This shows that developers are still actively creating and releasing fresh apps for Android users, ensuring the platform remains vibrant and innovative.
For Android users, these changes should mean an improved experience when browsing the Play Store. It will likely become easier to discover high-quality, useful apps and games without wading through a sea of low-quality or poorly maintained offerings. While the Play Store’s curation still isn’t perfect, this cleanup move is a step in the right direction toward a safer and more enjoyable app marketplace.
