HONG KONG (Reuters) – Apple on Thursday withdrew 39,000 gaming apps from its Chinese store, the largest removal ever in a single day, as it set the end of the year as the deadline for all publishers. games to get a license.
The eliminations come amid crackdown on unlicensed games by Chinese authorities.
Including the 39,000 games, Apple on Thursday withdrew more than 46,000 apps in total from its store. According to research firm Qimai, games affected by the sweep included Assassin’s Creed Identity, Ubisoft’s title and NBA 2K20.
Qimai also said only 74 of the top 1,500 paid games in the Apple store survived the purge.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Initially, Apple gave game publishers a deadline by the end of June to send a government-issued license number that would allow users to make purchases from the app in the world’s largest gaming market.
Apple later extended the deadline to December 31.
Android app stores in China have long complied with licensing regulations. It’s unclear why Apple enforces them more strictly this year.
Analysts said the move came as no surprise, as Apple continues to close gaps to align with China’s content regulators and would not directly affect Apple’s bottom line as much as previous eliminations.
“However, this big key to accepting only paid games that have a gaming license, along with the extremely low number of foreign gaming licenses approved this year by China, will likely cause more game developers to switch to a advertising model for its Chinese versions, ”said Todd Kuhns, head of marketing at AppInChina, a company that helps foreign companies distribute their applications.
Pei Li Reports; Edited by Alex Richardson