Gone but not forgotten: 18 games pulled from the App Store before their time

Updated January 16th, 2024: Original story by Danny Russell, update by Jon Mundy and Jupiter Hadley

The App Store is swamped with thousands upon thousands of titles. At any given point you must have a wishlist of at least a dozen or two that you’re waiting to go on sale or, better yet, free.

But what if something infinitely worse happens? What if the game you’ve been holding out for is removed, without warning? Well, you’re just plain out of luck.

Games are removed from the App Store for all sorts of reasons. Illegal or immoral content, expired licenses, backdoor hacks – you name it. Some publishers never even reveal why their games are removed.

The worrying part of all this is that some games may not be digitally preserved for future generations to experience.

Generally, if you’ve bought a title that becomes delisted, you can still download it from the “Purchased” tab in the App Store app, but if you’re worried about games disappearing for good you can check our guide on how to back up a removed app here. 

We’ve chosen some of our most missed games, which we’re worried you may have missed out on. Here’s our final hurrah to these these lost gems: