App Store resurgence powered by AI

Many predicted AI would kill apps. In reality, new app launches are soaring.

According to a new analysis from market intelligence provider Appfigures, worldwide app releases in the first quarter of 2026 rose 60% year-over-year across both Apple’s App Store and Google Play. That figure was even higher at 80% for the iOS App Store alone. So far in April 2026, total app releases across both stores have increased 104% compared to the same period last year, and 89% on iOS.

As Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Greg “Joz” Joswiak, quipped in a recent interview, “Rumors of the App Store’s death in the AI age may have been greatly exaggerated.”

Image credit: Appfigures

These findings come amid concerns that the rise of AI chatbots and agents could ultimately lead users away from apps — a theory already being floated by industry figures such as Nothing CEO Carl Pei, who is focused on building a smartphone for the AI era. The New York Times also reported last year on the potential for new computing platforms—like smart glasses, ambient computing devices, or reimagined smartwatches with AI features—to eclipse the smartphone.

OpenAI is even working on an AI hardware device with famed Apple designer Jony Ive.

But there’s another possibility: AI will make it easier for anyone to create apps, fueling a revival of the App Store. The new app gold rush could be led by creators who have ideas but lack the technical skills to design mobile software.

Appfigures’ data indicates that some app categories are seeing more new releases than others.

Image credit: Appfigures

The working hypothesis is that AI-powered tools, like Claude Code or Replit, could be behind the surge of new launches. It also seems possible that we are reaching a tipping point in AI usability, where it is easy enough for people to leverage these tools to build their own desired mobile apps more quickly—or even build their first apps ever.

The explosion of new apps for Apple to review could also be contributing to some of the tech giant’s recent missteps. This week, Apple removed the rewards app Freecash from the App Store for rule violations, after allowing the app to climb the store’s Top Charts and remain in the top five for months. Apple was also caught off guard by a malicious cryptocurrency app, a clone of Ledger Live, that drained $9.5 million in crypto from victims’ accounts.

While high-profile problems like this can generate bad publicity for the App Store, the company still does a lot of heavy lifting in terms of blocking and rejecting dangerous or spammy apps. Apple’s most recent analysis from 2024 said the company had removed or rejected more than 17,000 apps for bait-and-switch violations that year; rejected more than 320,000 app submissions that were found to be spam, copying other apps, or misleading; and took action to prevent more than 37,000 potentially fraudulent apps from reaching users on the App Store.

Still, Apple pundits like John Gruber have long argued that the App Store needs a kind of “bunco squad” that watches for scammy or fraudulent apps that are gaining popularity or becoming high-grossing.

If AI-assisted vibe coding turns out to be behind the recent surge in app releases, that need will only grow as more new apps flood the marketplace—not all of which will be benign.