Over 2,500 games removed from Apple’s China App Store in early July, as crackdown begins – ProWellTech

In the first week of July, over 2,500 mobile games were removed from the Chinese app store. after a new report from the App Store Intelligence company Sensor Tower. The moves were expected due to a planned move against unlicensed games, but this data is the first to show the impact on the app economy.

For comparison: the number of July is four times the number of games that were delisted in the first week of April, five times higher than in the first week of May and more than four times higher than in the first week of June.

The moves have to do with Apple’s new compliance with Chinese rules.

Apple earlier this year to set a deadline The law requires game developers who offer paid downloads or in-app purchases to obtain a license from one of the country’s censorship authorities, the General Administration of, press and publications from China.

For years, iPhone game developers had bypassed the law by releasing their games and then waiting for their license approval. This can be a long and lengthy process, which can take many months or more if a freeze is in progress – like in 2018. Then the licensing process in the gaming industry was suspended for nine months as the Chinese regulators relaunched their clamping requirements ranked below on games that included pornography, gambling, violence, and other content as viewed inappropriate from Beijing.

Large Android app stores had already enforced the 2016 rule, but Apple’s gap allowed a mobile gaming industry to thrive on the iPhone platform in China for years.

Apple’s decision was expected Starting in July, thousands of games will be removed from the app store. The data from the sensor tower indicate that this has happened.

However, the data can only collect games where there have been enough downloads to rank in the App Store charts, including the charts of the game subcategories.

Of the more than 2,500 games drawn, almost 2,000 (80%) have had fewer than 10,000 downloads since the beginning of 2012, the company estimates. Together, the titles had recorded a total of 133.4 million lifelong downloads.

Together, the removed games had gross lifetime sales of $ 34.7 million, with one game totaling $ 10 million and 6 grossing $ 1 million.

Notable moves included Contract Killer Zombies 2 by Glu, Solitaire by Zynga, ASMR Slicing by Crazy Labs, and Nonstop Chuck Norris by Flaregames. More recently, Supercell abolished Hay Day.

The changes in the gaming market and the impact of corona viruses on the app economy have already enabled the United States to regain the top spot in iOS consumer spending in the second quarter. According to App Annie, the U.S. saw iOS consumer spending grow 30% in the second quarter, outperforming China.

The longer-term impact of the move could translate into Apple’s bottom line, as Sensor Tower said China was the most lucrative market for mobile games in the world, even on iOS. In 2019, games in the Chinese app store generated an estimated $ 12.6 billion, or 33.2%, of all of the world’s gaming spending on the Apple market last year.