App Store Transparency Report Reveals That Apple Rejected Over 1.6 Million Submissions in 2022

Apple has published its first-ever transparency report, as per the terms of a 2021 lawsuit settlement. The iPhone maker's comprehensive report includes data pertaining to the number of apps rejected, appeals, deactivated developer accounts, search queries, and more.

Apple states in its report, "Our App Store Transparency Report provides data about how we operate the App Store in all 175 countries and regions where it's available." The report includes data from 2022, and will be updated each year.

"At Apple, we're committed to creating a great experience for customers and developers - and we review every app for compliance with our App Store Review Guidelines to uphold the highest privacy, security, and content standards," the report reads.

App Store Transparency Report 2022

According to the 2022 transparency report, 1,679,694 app submissions were rejected from the App Store. A large percentage of these rejections were due to performance issues, with 1,018,415 apps being rejected.

Other reasons include legal (441,972), design (212,464), business (152,391), safety (92,598), and miscellaneous (79,736). Of the apps that were re-submitted after rejection, 253,466 apps received an approval from Apple's App Store.

As for the applications removed from the App Store, a total of 186,195 apps were taken down. Games led the list with 38,883 removals. Other categories included utilities (20,045), business (16,997), education (16,509), lifestyle (15,171), entertainment (11,757), food & drink (8317), productivity (7314), travel (5510), and shopping (5376).

The apps were mainly removed from the App Store citing violation of the Developer Program License Agreement (DPLA) and store guidelines. In addition, 1474 apps were removed in response to government takedown demands, with China issuing the most requests.

Moving on to customer security, Apple had terminated 282,036,628 customer accounts in 2022 alone, preventing $2,090,195,480 worth of fraudulent transactions. On an average, 656,739,889 users visited the App Store every week, racking up 747,873,877 app downloads.

Apple has published its App Store transparency report on its website. The page also features resources about the company's legal matters, such as government information requests, legal department contacts, supplier provisions, and more.