According to the statement of Sensor Tower, an analytics firm based in San Francisco, the Chinese government removed 2,500 unlicensed games from the App Store platform in the first week of July.. This move of the Chinese government surprised users. Among the games deleted from the App Store, there are also very popular games.
The most striking among the games deleted from the store is Supercell’s Hay Day game, which was released in 2012.. Users manage a farm in Hay Day. The fact that this very popular game will no longer be in the store has caused a great disappointment to the users.. Other deleted games are popular games such as Nonstop Chuck Norris developed by Flaregames, Contract Killer Zombies 2 released by Glu and Solitaire by Zynga.. Giant company Apple removed these games from its store at the request of the Chinese Government.
China has been in the first place in the mobile game market for years.. China was the country where Apple earned the most with $12.6 billion in 2019.. Games removed so far were a tiny fraction of that revenue. However, Sensor Tower expects China to order the removal of even more apps from the store in the coming years.
China Gives App Store Apps Until July 31
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According to the statement made by Sensor Tower, the Chinese Government granted the removed applications the right to obtain a license from them until July 31st.. In this process, 660 games were licensed and accepted.. According to Sensor Tower’s data, the number of games removed in the first week of July is 4 times more than in June and 5 times more than in May.
China has brought strict controls on mobile games.. All games must be licensed by the National Press and Broadcasting Administration before being released.. In the past, games could enter the iOS App Store without approval, but now Apple is sticking to regulations.. If the game makers do not get a license by July 31, they will be removed from the store by the Chinese Government.
The games, which were removed in the first seven days of July, generated a total revenue of 34.7 million dollars in China and were downloaded more than 133 million times in the country.
As 97 games in the top hundred in the App Store have ISBNs, there will be no major damage.. Among the 2,500 games already, 2,000 games were unpopular.
Apple seems to be taking care to comply with the wishes of the Chinese Government to continue operating its App Store service in a large market like China.