Apple removed 39,000 mobile games from the Chinese App Store last Thursday.
According to the news published by Reuters, with the number of applications up to 46,000, it is the biggest removal ever to occur in a single day.
In late December, Apple warned developers and publishers that unlicensed apps would be removed from the Chinese App Store. By law, developers must have an ISBN (International Standard Book Number), or in other words, a valid publication number in order to publish apps on the Chinese App Store. Although Android stores have been enforcing this for four years, loopholes allowed developers to publish games on iOS without an ISBN.
Last year, Apple warned developers about the license obligation. The unlicensed apps were removed from the Chinese App Store in July at first, and then another removal occurred at the beginning of the year.
According to research firm Qimai, ames affected by the sweep included Ubisoft title Assassin’s Creed Identity and NBA 2K20,
The firm also noted that only 74 of the top 1,500 paid games on Apple store survived the purge.
“However, this major pivot to only accepting paid games that have a game licence, coupled with China’s extremely low number of foreign game licences approved this year, will probably lead more game developers to switch to an ad-supported model for their Chinese versions,” said Todd Kuhns, marketing manager for AppInChina, a firm that helps overseas companies distribute their apps.
