How much of the App Store is actively maintained, and how big the abandoned tail really is.
By Dor Bass· Based on 61,575 apps· Data updated 15 Jul 2026
Original research by App Store Hall of Records, computed from our index of 61,575 public App Store listings — every figure here is calculated, never estimated. See our editorial standards and glossary.
iOS reinvents itself every September, and every app has to keep up or slowly break. That makes the last-updated date the single most honest health check on the App Store — not what an app promises, but whether anyone is still tending it. Across 61,575 apps with a known update date, the picture pushes back on the lazy "the store is full of dead apps" cliché, while confirming there really is a graveyard at the edges.
39.6%updated in the last 30 days
77.4%updated within a year
15.6%untouched for 2+ years
Most of the store is alive
The active core is bigger than the pessimists claim. 39.6% of apps shipped an update in just the last 30 days, and 77.4% were updated within the past year. For all the talk of abandonware, the majority of the store is being actively maintained — patched, adapted to new iPhones, and kept current. An app you download today is, more likely than not, one someone is still working on.
Last 30 days24,386
1 to 3 months11,299
3 to 12 months11,995
1 to 2 years4,293
Over 2 years9,602
And a real graveyard at the edge
But the tail is genuine. 15.6% of apps have not been touched in over two years — on a platform that changes annually, that is the threshold where "still available" stops meaning "still working." These are apps that may launch and then fail quietly: broken logins, incompatibility with the newest iOS, unpatched security holes. They clutter search results and inflate category counts, but they are effectively frozen in time. Two years without an update is the clearest single red flag on a listing.
Some categories run harder than others
The treadmill runs at different speeds. Fast-moving categories like Finance (89.3% updated within a year) and Shopping keep shipping because they depend on live data, servers, and constant competition. At the other end, categories like Reference (62.9%) carry more set-and-forget apps — simple tools and reference titles that, rightly or wrongly, their makers consider finished. The gap is a decent proxy for how much ongoing care a category's apps tend to get.
The bottom line
Before you download, check the version history date. Updated in the last few months: healthy. Within a year: normal. Nothing in over two years: treat it as abandoned unless it is a dead-simple tool that genuinely needs no maintenance — and never for anything handling your money, health, or personal data. The store is mostly alive, but the last-updated date is how you avoid the parts that are not.
Dig into the data
The boards and tools behind this study, updated automatically:
More than most people assume. Around 40% shipped an update in the last 30 days and about 77% within the past year. The active core of the store is large.
When should I consider an app abandoned?
When it has not been updated in over two years. iOS changes every year, so an app untouched that long is likely to break, and it will not be getting security or compatibility fixes.
Which app categories are updated most often?
Categories that depend on live data and servers — and face heavy competition — ship updates most frequently. Simple tools and reference apps are more often treated as "finished" and left alone.
How this was made: this study is computed across 61,575 apps carrying the public App Store metadata it needs, drawn from our live index of 72,021 tracked apps, and is recomputed on a schedule. It is a large, representative sample of the store rather than every app in existence, and the figures shift over time as the store changes. No estimates or third-party numbers are used.
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Hall of Records