According to 1M AI News monitoring, Sensor Tower data shows that in the first quarter of 2026, the number of new apps launched on the global App Store reached 235,800, up 84% year over year. In 2025, the total number of new apps already increased by 30% compared with 2024, approaching 600k, whereas in the prior nearly decade (2016-2024), this figure fell cumulatively by 48%.
Advanced analyst Abraham Yousef at Sensor Tower said the surge in new apps aligns closely with the widespread adoption of AI programming tools such as Claude Code and Codex, adding, “These tools remove many of the hurdles that previously existed to creating an app.” The newly added apps are mainly concentrated in productivity categories, followed by photography, video, and weather. An Apple spokesperson said the current growth in new apps proves the App Store’s continued appeal.
Despite Apple recently taking down the AI app generation platform Anything and blocking updates to tools such as Replit, a Replit spokesperson said that in the past few months, nearly 5,000 apps developed by Replit users have still successfully made it onto the App Store. Complaints from developers about longer review cycles are also increasing. Last month, Elon Musk wrote on X that, “The delay in iOS app review is getting more and more absurd.” Apple denied that reviews have slowed, saying it handled more than 200k submissions per week over the past 12 weeks, with 90% completed within 48 hours, an average review time of 1.5 days, and that it has introduced AI tools to assist human review.
A surge in quantity doesn’t necessarily mean an improvement in quality. Both developers and consumers have begun to complain that low-quality apps are flooding the App Store, making it harder for users to discover high-quality apps. App Store consultant Matthew Cassinelli’s assessment was blunt: “There are a lot more apps, but there are only a handful that a person can use in a day.”
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