Apple Has Approved 1 Million Apps for the App Store

As of Monday, Apple has now approved more than 1 million apps for the App Store, according to data from Appsfire, a mobile app discovery platform.

Appsfire announced the news in a tweet early Monday:

Breaking: today will mark the day the App store has seen 1 million apps ever created since launch (iOS)

— Appsfire (@appsfire) November 19, 2012

Appsfire’s co-founder Ouriel Ohayon told The Next Web that 493,298 of these app submissions were paid apps and 158,848 were gaming apps. In total, just more than 736,000 of these app submissions are now live for iPhone or iPad, due to the fact that many apps were later taken down for copyright reasons or removed by their creators for other reasons.

Apple frequently touts the number of apps in its App Store, but it’s unlikely the company will put out a press release anytime soon including the number of apps that have been approved and then removed. Still, it’s an impressive feat, and one that speaks to the incredible growth in the app market overall.

The company released the original iPhone in 2007 and created the App Store the following year. It took Apple more than a year to hit 100,000 apps, but since then the selection has grown by leaps and bounds and there are now more than 700,000 apps, 250,000 of which are specifically for iPad.

For years, Apple has had a tremendous lead on competitors, but Google Play passed 700,000 apps last month, putting it roughly on par with Apple’s App Store.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Cristiano Betta