Malicious apps can steal banking information and take over social media accounts used. So as a security measure, side-installing apps is highly encouraged to download apps only through official app stores. Google published their ecosystem report this week and over 1.75 million malicious apps were successfully blocked before they were published on the Play Store.
This is a significant reduction from 2.36 million in 2024 and 2.28 million in 2023. Also throughout 2025, over 80,000 developer accounts were banned for trying to publish malicious apps. This is a reduction from 158,000 accounts in 2024 and 333,000 in 2023.
In addition, the Play Store also blocked over 255,000 apps from accessing sensitive user data. Google Play Protect scans 350 billion Android apps every day and has successfully identified over 27 million new malicious apps outside of Google Play. Once detected, users are warned to block these apps on their devices.
