Google said it prevented 1.43 million policy-violating apps from being published on Google Play in 2022. The often-quoted 1.4 million is a rounded figure—not a count of malware apps removed from Android phones, or a measure of every harmful app in circulation.
What Google’s 1.4 million figure means
In an April 27, 2023 report, Google said it blocked 1.43 million apps from publication on Google Play during calendar year 2022 because they violated its policies. The figure describes Google’s store-enforcement outcome: apps prevented from being published. It does not say how many apps were installed and later removed, how many malicious apps existed overall, or how many submissions were malicious rather than violating other policies. Google’s 2022 safety report does not provide an independent audit or detailed counting methodology for the total.
Google also reported that it banned 173,000 bad accounts and prevented more than $2 billion in fraudulent and abusive transactions in 2022. These are separate measures, not additional app counts.
How Google said it stopped apps from being published
Google attributed its 2022 work to overlapping defenses, including updated policies and security features, machine-learning systems, and app-review processes. It also said it strengthened identity verification for new developers using phone, email, and other checks, and worked with software development kit (SDK) providers to limit sensitive data access and sharing. Google said that work affected the privacy posture of more than one million Play apps. It did not quantify how many blocked apps were caught by each measure.
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Developer support is a different kind of protection
Separately, Google’s App Security Improvements program helped developers fix about 500,000 security weaknesses across approximately 300,000 apps in 2022. Google said those apps represented a combined install base of roughly 250 billion installs. This was remediation support for existing apps, not a portion of the 1.43 million blocked submissions. Google also launched the Play SDK Index to help developers assess SDK safety and reliability. Google’s report describes these as distinct efforts.
Google’s 2022 report also described an independent-security-review badge in an app’s Data safety section for apps that completed the App Defense Alliance’s Mobile App Security Assessment (MASA), which Google said uses OWASP’s Mobile Application Security Verification Standard. That description is specific to the initiative as reported then; it does not establish the badge’s current availability or scope. See Google’s 2022 explanation.
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Store blocks and Play Protect measure different things
Preventing an app from being published is different from detecting an app already on a device. Play Protect is Google’s device-side scanning service; it can scan apps from Google Play and apps obtained elsewhere. Google’s later annual posts report detections of new malicious apps from outside Play separately from store-publication blocks.
| Year covered | Apps blocked from Google Play | New malicious apps identified from outside Play | Source and publication date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.43 million policy-violating apps | Not stated in the cited 2022 report | Google, April 27, 2023; 2022 report |
| 2024 | 2.36 million policy-violating apps | More than 13 million | Google, January 29, 2025; 2024 report |
| 2025 | More than 1.75 million policy-violating apps | More than 27 million | Google, February 19, 2026; 2025 report |
The blocked-app figures count policy violations in store submissions; the outside-Play figures count new malicious apps identified by Play Protect’s real-time scanning. They are different outcomes and channels. The annual totals come from Google and describe its own enforcement and detection systems, not independent measurements of the total threat landscape. Their variation does not, by itself, show that harmful apps became more or less prevalent.
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Can malicious apps still appear in official app stores?
Yes. In October 2022, Meta said its researchers found more than 400 malicious Android and iOS apps designed to steal Facebook logins, with examples listed in Google Play and Apple’s App Store. Meta said it reported the apps and that they had been taken down before its post appeared. This is evidence that malicious apps can evade store screening; it is not a test of Google’s 1.43 million figure. Meta’s account of the investigation concerns its own findings.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What Android users can do
- Keep Play Protect enabled. Google recommends using it as a layer of protection, including for apps obtained outside Google Play. It is not a guarantee that every harmful app will be detected.
- Review the app’s Data safety information. Check what the developer says the app collects or shares, and whether that matches the app’s purpose.
- Read ratings and reviews critically. Look for patterns in recent feedback rather than relying on a single review or a high average rating.
These checks can help inform a decision, but none proves an app is safe. Google’s 2025 report describes Play Protect and other protections in its current-at-publication context; its features and guidance can change. Google’s 2025 safety report includes its latest annual figures cited here.
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