Apple removes 39,000 games from the App Store in China

Apple pulled 39,000 games from its App Store in China on December 31, 2020, including NBA 2K20 and Assassin's Creed Identity. 

As reported by Reuters, the purge is the result of strict licensing regulations being ushered in by Chinese authorities and enforced by Apple. 

The iPhone maker had initially given publishers operating in the region a mid-2020 deadline to obtain a government-issued license, allowing them to release and support games that use in-app purchases, before eventually extending that deadline to the end of December. 

It seems, however, that some companies failed to meet that deadline, resulting in what was reportedly the biggest single-day takedown of apps in the history of the platform. 

In total, 46,000 apps were affected including those 39,000 video games, with research company Qimai finding that only 74 of the top 1,500 paid titles on the App Store survived the purge.