Apple’s App Store lost 5 per cent of its apps in 2017, with the figure dropping from 2.2 million at the start of the year to 2.1 million by the end, representing the first time it has dropped.

The figures were published by Appfigures, which noted “the decline is a result of stricter enforcement of Apple’s review guidelines, as well as a technical change that eliminated many old apps that were not updated to support 64-bit architecture.”

Apple had said in 2016 it would clean up the App Store by removing outdated and abandoned apps, and in 2017 wanted to get rid of clones and spam apps.

Another factor noted in the report was iOS developers were slow to release apps, launching 755,000 in 2017 – a drop of 29 per cent and the first drop since the App Store launched in 2008.

Meanwhile Google Play continued to grow at a rate of about 30 per cent, hitting more than 3.6 million apps by the end of 2017.

Android developers released more than 1.5 million new apps, an increase of about 17 per cent year-over-year, the largest jump since 2014, Appfigures stated.