Missing the most · 4 of 217 storefronts
What is censored in Sudan?
Only 3 of the 217 Google Play countries Google operates are missing more widely-used apps than Sudan. 38.4% of the apps with 10,000+ user ratings worldwide that we have tested here are unavailable but still available somewhere else — 393 of 1,023, against 15.5% for the typical storefront.
393 widely-used apps unavailable here1,023 widely-used apps tested here = 38.4%
What this number counts, and what it cannot show
Of the apps we have tested here that have at least 10,000 user ratings worldwide and are still on sale somewhere, the share you cannot get here. Both sides of the fraction are what we tested in this storefront, so an app we have not tested here is in neither and cannot move the figure either way — which is the whole reason this is a share and not a count. Nothing about how widely an app is distributed enters it, so an app sold in one other storefront counts exactly as much as one sold in all 217.
393 of the 1,023 widely-used apps we have tested here are unavailable — 38.4%. · median 15.5%
This correlates 0.51 with how many apps we have tested here — better than a raw count of missing apps, slightly worse than the fixed-basket count it replaced, because which widely-used apps we happened to test here is not a random sample of them. Its other weakness is shared by every version of this measure: a region-locked app is missing from nearly every storefront, so about three-quarters of a typical share is a floor almost everyone stands on. That is why the middle of the ranking is much flatter than its ends, and why a rank in the middle should not be read as a finding.
Measured Sep 28, 2026
Which notable apps are missing, by kind
The 250 apps above, sorted by what kind of app each one is. We watched 4 of them disappear from this storefront; the rest have been absent for as long as we have been testing here.
How these kinds are worked out
250 widely-used apps are missing here, sorted by what they are. Every one is classified from its name and Google’s own category, so nothing is left out and nothing depends on a list being kept up to date: 61 of the 250 fall into a kind we defined — VPNs, news, messaging, privacy tools and so on — and the rest are shown under Google’s own category. Within each kind the most-reviewed apps come first, because the point is which apps people actually use.
Each kind is shown twice over: the apps in it people actually use, and the same apps by when they went. Of the 250, we watched 4 disappear from this storefront, 1 of them in the last year. The rest have been absent for as long as we have been testing here, which is a different thing from having been removed and is shown as such.
Names are matched conservatively, and the misses are the deliberate kind: an app called "IP Location Changer" is a VPN and is caught by name, while a privacy browser is filed under privacy rather than VPN. Google’s category is used wherever it is the better answer — every news app it labels `News` is one, whereas a name rule for "news" also catches a football-scores app and a jobs board. Dates are when we last saw an app available here, and we have been testing this storefront since — anything that went before then is counted as missing but not as removed.
VPN and proxy21
Social and messaging24
Most used
- Google Chrome
- Gmail
- VK: music, video, messenger
- Yahoo Mail: Email & Planner
- Discord - Talk, Play, Hang Out
and 19 more
Most recently gone
News10
Most used
- X
- Google News - Daily Headlines
- SmartNews: News That Matters
- NewsBreak: Local News & Alerts
- CNN: Live & Breaking News
and 5 more
Most recently gone
LGBTQ+1
Most used
Most recently gone
Dating5
Shopping46
Most used
- Flipkart Online Shopping App
- Walmart: Shopping & Savings
- eBay online shopping & selling
- Amazon Shopping
- Shopee PH: 4.4 Sale
and 41 more
Most recently gone
Entertainment231 in the last year
Most used
and 18 more
Most recently gone
Finance16
Most used
and 11 more
Most recently gone
Business11
Most used
- Indeed Job Search
- Uber - Driver: Drive & Deliver
- Zoom Workplace
- LinkedIn: Community & Network
- Adobe Scan AI PDF Scanner, OCR
and 6 more
Most recently gone
Music and audio11
Productivity11
Most used
- Google Drive
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft Excel: Spreadsheets
- Microsoft Copilot
- Adobe Acrobat Reader: Edit PDF
and 6 more
Most recently gone
Food and drink10
Most recently gone
Health and fitness8
Most used
- MyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter
- Strava: Run, Bike, Walk
- Calm - Sleep, Meditate, Relax
- WeightWatchers Program
- BetterSleep: Sleep tracker
and 3 more
Most recently gone
Sports7
Most used
- ESPN
- LiveScore: Live Sports Scores
- FIFA Official App
- Yahoo Sports: Scores and News
- FOX Sports: Watch Live Games
and 2 more
Most recently gone
Photography6
Most used
- Google Photos
- Picsart AI Photo Editor, Video
- Photo Lab Picture Editor & Art
- FaceApp: Perfect Face Editor
- HD Camera for Android
and 1 more
Most recently gone
Lifestyle5
Tools5
Most recently gone
Travel and local5
Books and reference4
Maps and navigation4
Most recently gone
Action3
Most recently gone
Video players and editors3
Most recently gone
Education2
Most recently gone
Weather2
Most recently gone
Adventure1
Most used
Most recently gone
Comics1
Most used
Most recently gone
Dating1
Most used
Most recently gone
House and home1
Most used
Most recently gone
Puzzle1
Most used
Most recently gone
Simulation1
Most used
Most recently gone
Strategy1
Most used
Most recently gone
How we test
The total at the top of the page is every app we have tested here that we cannot get but that is still available somewhere — 38.4% of the 1,023 apps we have tested in this storefront, at any size. How many we have tested differs eightfold between storefronts, so that total compares poorly across countries. It is the share beside it, whose denominator is what we tested here, that is comparable.
Availability is checked against Google’s own catalog servers for every storefront, the same way Google Play app asks. "Unavailable" means Google’s servers say the app cannot be offered in that country — it does not say who asked for the removal. Removals initiated by the developer and removals demanded by governments look the same from outside; the history and context on this page are how we tell them apart.