Apple to start removing ‘thousands’ of mobile games from the China App Store

Bloomberg reports that Apple will start removing thousands of mobile games lacking government approval from its App Store in China in July.

Developers and publishers in the country have been told that their iOS games will need licenses to continue operating from July, the article adds, quoting unnamed “people familiar with the matter.” The decision ends the unofficial practice of allowing games to be published while awaiting authorization from the country’s regulators.

This will affect such games as Grand Theft Auto. Bloomberg says there are about 60,000 games on China’s iOS App Store that are either paid or contain in-app purchases, and at least a third of them don’t have a license, according to an estimate by AppInChina, which helps companies localize and publish their apps in the country.

Speaking of the Apple App Store, data from Finbold, a financial news site,  shows that by June 2020, games on iOS devices generated approximately $13.29 million in daily revenue. From the data, Fortnite leads in average daily revenue at $2.75 million followed by Roblox with revenue of $2.40 million. 

Augmented reality mobile game Pokemon Go ranks third with returns of $1.86 million while Coin Master closely follows at $1.80 million. Candy Crush Saga brings in the fifth-highest daily revenue of $1.42 million.