The App Store 2022 Transparency Report provides meaningful statistics about the application review process, including the number of rejected applications, the number of deactivated customer and developer accounts, the number of apps removed from the App Store, data related to queries and search results, etc.

In 2022, the App Store had a total of more than 1.7 million applications, with more than 6.1 million reviews (an application can be submitted for multiple approvals) and 1.6 million rejections for safety, performance, design or legal reasons.

About 186,000 apps were removed from the App Store for rule violations, most of them in the Games category, followed by Utilities, Business, and Education.

Of these, 4,657 apps were removed for violating design standards, whilst 3,626 apps were removed for fraud.

China topped the list with more than 40,000 apps removed, followed by the United States 32,000, and India 10,000.

After the removal, there were 18,412 complaints sent to Apple for appealing removals, with 616 proving to be successful, including 11 Vietnamese apps.

According to Apple’s own guidelines, design violations include applications that are outdated or have worse user experience than it expected, such as redirecting users to a website before running the app.

Fraud included applications that created fraudulent reviews of competitors, unfair competition, or false content to trick users.

There were also other reasons for removal, such as violating developers’ code of conduct, copying other apps' designs, spam apps, violating intellectual property rights, and spreading fake news.

The Vinh