HONG KONG – According to data from SensorTower, more than 2,500 games were removed from Apple’s China app store in the first week of July. This is four times the number during the same period in June. The move comes after Apple closed a loophole to comply with Chinese licence requirements.
Apple gave publishers of revenue-generating games a June-end deadline to submit a government licence number allowing them to make in-app purchases. However, it is unclear why Apple did not plug the loopholes all this while.
Some of the games that were removed in July include Supercell’s farming hit “Hay Day”, “Nonstop Chuck Norris” from Flaregames and “Solitaire” from Zynga.
“It’s possible these games will be available again in future, however, but have been gone from the storefront for more than five days,” said Randy Nelson, who heads Mobile Insights at SensorTower.
The app-analytics firm was not able to determine each game’s individual reason for removal, but the sharp tick up was notable, he added.
The games which were taken out during the first week of July had garnered a combined $34.7 million in lifetime gross revenue in China and registered more than 133 million downloads.
Beijing has tightened curbs over the world’s largest video-game market over recent years and online games have to go through a lengthy process to get a licence.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field