560,000 AI apps hit Apple’s App Store in six months

Apple’s App Store added 560,000 AI applications in the first half of 2026, according to estimates from Sensor Tower. If the pace continues, the catalog could reach roughly 1 million new AI apps by the end of the year—the fastest expansion in the store’s history.

The App Store has operated since 2008 and has traditionally maintained stricter quality and safety checks than many competing stores. That system is now facing a sharp increase in submissions.

AI coding tools expand the developer pool

Development tools including Codex, Claude Code, and GitHub Copilot allow people with little or no previous coding experience to build working applications. As a result, the pool of App Store creators has expanded beyond established studios to include individual developers who previously might not have entered the platform.

The growth in supply has not translated into comparable demand. Sensor Tower says app downloads increased by only 2% in 2026, leaving many new releases with little visibility while adding to the workload for Apple’s review teams.

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Philip Shoemaker, a former head of the App Store, has warned that the flood of low-quality applications makes reviews more difficult and increases the risk of malicious software slipping through. Apple says its process remains fast: according to the company, 90% of apps are reviewed in less than 48 hours.

The immediate test is therefore not how many more AI applications Apple can add, but whether it can keep the store’s quality at its current level.

Marta Barinova is an editor on the news desk specializing in software analysis, streaming services, and changes to global technology-platform policies. She covers Windows updates, feature changes in Spotify and Google, and antitrust issues involving app stores. She has written more than 140 articles.