• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, July 16, 2020

Apple’s compliance with the Chinese government’s new mobile gaming regulations is costing the company more money by the day.

That’s according to fresh analysis from Sensor Tower, which estimates that Apple removed more than 2,500 titles from China’s App Store in the first seven days of July.

The research firm calculates that the titles removed during this period had generated a combined $34.7 million in lifetime gross revenue in China.

“In terms of the overall market, the $34.7 million in lifetime revenue generated from the removed games is not all that significant,” Craig Chapple, mobile insights strategist, EMEA at Sensor Tower, noted in a new post.

“As the deadline looms for publishers to obtain an [International Standard Book Number or ISBN], however, we can expect to see further removals during the next month and it will be more challenging than ever for international companies to release their games in China,” Chapple added.

Before they could be released, China’s mobile gaming regulations already required that titles receive a license from the country’s National Press and Publication Administration. Yet titles were still commonly released on China’s App Store without any such approval.

Just recently, however, Apple agreed to begin adhering to China’s regulations, and ordered developers to begin providing the necessary approval numbers and supporting documentation.

China, of course, represents a major source of app revenue for Apple.

Last year, games on China’s App Store generated an estimated $12.6 billion, which accounted for about a third of all global games spending on Apple’s marketplace.

In second place, the U.S. App Store generated about $9 billion, or less than a quarter of total App Store games revenue.

The removed games had accumulated a combined 133.4 million lifetime downloads in China, according to Sensor Tower.

Notable games recently removed from China’s App Store include Supercell’s “Hay Day,” Zynga’s “Solitaire,” and Glu’s “Contract Kill Zombies 2.”