Google Play carries roughly 1.91 million apps as of July 2026, according to AppBrain’s continuously updated tracker, though rival crawler 42matters counts closer to 2.47 million using a different indexing method. Either figure is a fraction of the store’s all-time high: Google Play peaked at 4.67 million listings in the fourth quarter of 2021, per Statista’s tracking, before a multi-year quality and security purge cut the total by more than half.
The two counts do not agree because Google does not publish an official number, and third-party trackers differ on which apps still count as live versus indexed-but-abandoned. What every tracker agrees on is the direction: Google Play is smaller today than it was five years ago, and the reason is enforcement, not a slowdown in developers publishing.
How many apps are on Google Play in 2026?
The most current, methodology-disclosed count comes from AppBrain, whose live crawler put Google Play at 1.91 million apps on July 24, 2026. 42matters, a separate app-intelligence firm that updates its own tracker daily, counted 2,466,919 apps (about 2.47 million) as of July 25, 2026. The half-million-app gap between the two comes down to counting rules: AppBrain excludes apps it judges to be delisted or non-functional more aggressively than 42matters does.
Figure 1: Google Play and Apple App Store size by tracker, both measured in July 2026. Source: AppBrain and 42matters live trackers.
Neither number is wrong. They are measuring slightly different things at slightly different moments, which is normal for any storefront that does not publish its own count. Treat any single-decimal “the” app count you see quoted elsewhere as a rounding of one of these two trackers, not a third, independently verified figure.
Why did the Google Play Store shrink from its 2021 peak?
Google Play’s catalog has moved in one clear arc over the past five years: up through 2021, then sharply down. The store reached 4.67 million apps in the fourth quarter of 2021, per Statista’s historical tracking, its largest recorded size. From there, the count declined unevenly for two years before a targeted 2024 policy change turned a gradual decline into a collapse.
By early 2024, Google Play still carried roughly 3.4 million apps. Then Google rolled out stricter quality rules in July 2024, including mandatory pre-release testing by at least 20 users, expanded developer identity verification, and bans on apps with “limited functionality and content.” The result: by April 2025, Appfigures counted just 1.8 million apps on the store, a 47% drop in about fifteen months, as reported by TechCrunch. Over the same window, the Apple App Store barely moved, from 1.6 million apps to about 1.64 million, which rules out a broader industry-wide contraction. The decline was specific to Google Play’s own enforcement.
Figure 2: Google Play’s app count from its 2021 peak through the 2024 to 2025 purge and into 2026. Sources: Statista, Appfigures via TechCrunch, AppBrain.
The count has since crept back up slightly, from the 1.8 million trough to 1.91 million by mid-2026, as new publishing outpaces the now-smaller removal rate. Google Play is unlikely to return to its 2021 size on the current enforcement posture.
How many apps does Google block from Google Play each year?
Google publishes its own annual enforcement numbers, and they explain the shrinkage directly. In 2022, Google blocked 1.43 million policy-violating apps from publishing and banned 173,000 developer accounts. In 2023, that rose to 2.28 million apps blocked and 333,000 accounts banned. The 2024 total was the highest yet: 2.36 million apps blocked and 158,000 accounts banned. In 2025, blocking eased to 1.75 million apps with 80,000 accounts banned.
| Year | Apps blocked from publishing | Developer accounts banned |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.43 million | 173,000 |
| 2023 | 2.28 million | 333,000 |
| 2024 | 2.36 million | 158,000 |
| 2025 | 1.75 million | 80,000 |
Figure 3: Google’s own year-over-year enforcement totals. Source: Google Online Security Blog, annual “bad apps and bad actors” reports, 2023 to 2026.
These figures count submissions Google rejected before they ever reached a user, separate from the mass removal of already-published apps that drove the 2024 to 2025 catalog shrinkage above. Both pipelines run at once: fewer new low-quality apps get in, and existing low-quality apps get pulled.
How many new apps launch on Google Play each day?
Publishing has not slowed down. 42matters puts the average at 2,648 new apps published per day on Google Play as of July 2026, spread across 763,175 active publisher accounts. AppBrain’s more granular monthly snapshot for June 2026 shows 72,300 new app launches against 32,900 removals, a net gain of 39,300 apps in a single month, roughly 2,410 net new apps per day after removals are subtracted.
Figure 4: How Google Play’s monthly app count actually moves. Source: AppBrain, June 2026 data.
Every one of those roughly 2,648 daily submissions still needs a license agreement before it clears Google’s review, since Play Console requires developers to disclose data handling and licensing terms as part of the listing. If you are one of them, you can generate a EULA that names your app’s actual functionality and licensing terms, rather than adapting a template written for a different kind of app.
Google Play vs Apple App Store: which is bigger in 2026?
The two largest app marketplaces are now close enough in size that the “bigger” answer depends on which tracker you ask. 42matters counts 2.47 million apps on Google Play against 2.46 million on the Apple App Store, a gap of well under 1%. AppBrain’s more conservative Google Play count of 1.91 million would put Apple ahead by a wider margin, but no comparably disclosed live Apple tracker from AppBrain exists to make that comparison on equal footing.
| Metric | Google Play (AppBrain) | Google Play (42matters) | Apple App Store (42matters) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total apps | 1.91 million | 2.47 million | 2.46 million |
| Measured as of | July 24, 2026 | July 25, 2026 | July 12, 2026 |
| Free apps | Not disclosed | 97.07% | 94.96% |
| Recent trend | Recovering from 2025 trough | Roughly flat | Growing (new apps doubled H1 2026) |
For a broader look at downloads, revenue, and rejection data across both stores, see our App Store 2026 breakdown, which covers the 149 billion downloads and $167 billion in consumer spending both stores generated together in 2025.
What share of Google Play apps are free, paid, or games?
Google Play remains overwhelmingly non-gaming and overwhelmingly free. Of the 2,466,919 apps 42matters counted in July 2026, games make up just 11.45% (282,411 apps) against 88.55% non-gaming apps (2,184,509). On pricing, 97.07% of apps are free to download (2,393,789), leaving only 2.93% as paid (72,283).
Figure 5: Share of Google Play’s catalog that is games versus everything else. Source: 42matters, July 2026 data.
Games are a small slice of the catalog by count, even though they generate a disproportionate share of consumer spending, a pattern consistent with the wider app economy where a small number of high-revenue titles coexist with millions of low-download utility and business apps. For a deeper look at how those millions of listings actually perform after install, see our mobile app usage, downloads, and revenue data for 2026, including how many apps get uninstalled within 30 days.
The Bottom Line
The honest answer to “how many apps are on Google Play” in 2026 is a range, not a single number: somewhere between 1.91 million and 2.47 million, depending on which tracker’s counting rules you accept, and both are still well below the 4.67 million peak from 2021. The more useful number for anyone actually publishing to the store is the enforcement trend, not the raw count. Google blocked 2.36 million submissions in 2024 and still rejected 1.75 million in 2025, so review scrutiny is not going back to 2021 levels even as the catalog stabilizes. If you are shipping an app in 2026, budget time for the pre-release testing requirement and make sure your licensing terms match what your app actually does before you submit.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many apps are on Google Play in 2026? About 1.91 million, according to AppBrain’s live tracker as of July 2026, though 42matters counts closer to 2.47 million using a different indexing method. Both figures sit far below the store’s 2021 peak of 4.67 million apps.
Why did Google Play lose so many apps? Google’s 2024 quality and security policies removed low-value, abandoned, and policy-violating listings, cutting the store from roughly 3.4 million apps in early 2024 to about 1.8 million by April 2025, a 47% drop, according to Appfigures data reported by TechCrunch.
Does Google Play or the Apple App Store have more apps? They are nearly tied in 2026. 42matters counts about 2.47 million apps on Google Play versus roughly 2.46 million on the Apple App Store, a gap of well under 1%.
How many new apps does Google block from Google Play each year? Google blocked 2.36 million policy-violating app submissions in 2024 and 1.75 million in 2025, banning 158,000 and 80,000 developer accounts respectively, according to its own security blog.
Sources and References
- AppBrain. “Number of Android Apps on Google Play.” Live tracker, data captured July 24, 2026.
- 42matters. “Google Play Statistics and Trends.” Daily-updated tracker, data captured July 25, 2026.
- 42matters. “iOS Apple App Store Statistics and Trends.” Daily-updated tracker, data captured July 12, 2026.
- Statista. “Number of available apps in the Google Play Store by quarter.” Historical series showing the Q4 2021 peak of 4.67 million apps.
- TechCrunch. (2025). “Google Play sees 47% decline in apps since start of last year.” Citing Appfigures data, published April 29, 2025.
- Google Online Security Blog. (2023). “How we fought bad apps and bad actors in 2022.”
- Google Online Security Blog. (2024). “How we fought bad apps and bad actors in 2023.”
- Google. (2025). “How we kept Google Play and the Android app ecosystem safe in 2024.”
- Google Online Security Blog. (2026). “Keeping Google Play and Android app ecosystems safe in 2025.”
Note: All figures verified as of July 2026. Google Play’s app count is a live, third-party-tracked figure that changes daily, not an official published statistic, so the headline numbers in this article are refreshed at least twice a year.
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