GoKawiilThanks to the new possibilities afforded by AI coding tools, the App Store is seeing a resurgence in new app submissions, even as Apple continues to take issue with some of the ways these apps are built and behave. Here are the details.
Amid app submission surge, Apple turns to AI to scale App Store review
The Information reports that while new app submissions to the App Store fell 46% between 2016 and 2024, “the number of new apps that showed up in the App Store globally suddenly exploded” last year, “growing 30% to nearly 600,000 compared to 2024.”
The report, based on Sensor Tower data, suggests that the main contributors to the surge in new apps are vibe coding tools such as Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex.
The Information notes that while “it’s difficult to determine how many of these new apps developers created using AI, it’s likely most rely on AI tools given how quickly they have been adopted”:
The AI coding tools have made it possible for nonprogrammers to produce workable apps using written prompts, while allowing people who already have programming skills to produce far more code than they can manually. “We’ve seen an explosive growth of new apps over the past year,” said Abraham Yousef, senior insights analyst at Sensor Tower. “It aligns with a broader release of agentic coding tools that remove prior difficulties of creating apps.”
When reached for comment, Apple told The Information that this wave reflects the relevance of the App Store.
Interestingly, Apple has also been pushing back against certain iOS-based vibe coding apps that, according to the company, break App Review Guidelines and the Developer Program License.
In recent weeks, Apple has either pulled or blocked updates to apps such as Anything and Replit, pushing developers to change how their tools generate and execute code.
In short, some of these apps generate interpreted code that can change their own primary purpose, something Apple does not allow.
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