The Apple App Store offers a seemingly limitless number of terrific apps for our devices. But we also know it’s not actually limitless. So, have you ever wondered how many apps are in the App Store?

The chart below lists of the total number of apps available in the App Store at various dates in the past. The list is based on Apple announcements, news from Apple and other companies, and estimates from analysts, so the numbers are approximate.

The Total iOS Apps column includes all apps that work on the iPhone, the iPad, iPod touch, or all three. The iPad Apps column lists the number of apps that have specific iPad versions. The Apple Watch and Apple TV apps columns aren’t counted as part of the Total Apps, since they have slightly separate App Stores.

There are a few interesting things we can see in this chart:

It’s Really Hard to Get Good Numbers

We have lots of good, detailed data for the early days of these app stores. That the data gets less specific and is updated less often the closer we come to the present. That’s because Apple has stopped providing this information so regularly.

This part of an overall trend with Apple. In recent years, the company has limited the amount and types of data it shares with the public. For instance, it used to announce the number of iPhones sold it each quarter. Now it only announces the revenue generated from those sales.

Apple seems to be following that trend with its app stores, preferring to talk about sales and pay-outs to developers rather than total numbers of available apps. It may also think that saying there are 2 million apps is enough — and that that’s basically the equivalent of saying you can find anything you want.

There’s Some Confusion

Something important that Apple doesn’t reveal in these numbers is whether the iPad Apps total includes those that are iPad only or if it represents those that are iPad only and those that have combined iPhone and iPad versions. If it’s the second, the total number of iPad-only apps is smaller than what’s listed here.

The App Store is Shrinking​​ — On Purpose

From 2017 to 2020, the number of iPhone apps in the App Store declined. That might seem bad. That’s not necessarily the case. In recent years, Apple introduced new standards to improve the quality of the apps available in the store. The company also removed old apps that are no longer compatible with new versions of the iOS, apps that copy other apps, and those that provide tools that aren’t needed on the iPhone, like antivirus. While numbers do sometimes go down, they’re dropping while the quality of apps in the store is going up.

The Explosive Growth of Apps

Apple added support for apps to iOS in July 2008. In the 18 months from then to January 2010, nearly 150,000 apps were released. That’s around 275 apps per day. That’s an amazing start.

iPad Apps Grew at the Same Pace

You might think that the growth of iPad apps would be faster than iPhone apps, since the App Store ecosystem had been in place for two years and users were comfortable with apps. Not true. The iPad had around 140,000 apps after its first 18 months, just like the iPhone.

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