applecensorship

We monitor 175 App Store storefronts to answer one question —

Is 画家大侦探 censored by Apple?

Gone.

画家大侦探 is gone from every App Store storefront we test. It was last seen available on Mar 3, 2022.

26 tests on record·⚠ last verified 5 months ago — treat as historical

Why it is unavailable

Five things can put an app out of one App Store. Each is weighed below against what can be seen from outside — open a card for the reasoning.

  • A government or a court demanded itPossible

    and Apple complied. Apple publishes a count of these per country each year and never says which apps they were. Apple's 2025 App Store Transparency Report

    • 58% of Games apps are unavailable in mainland China — 14,586 of 25,001 — against 28% of everything we test there.
    • Apple reports 1,213 government-ordered removals in Russia for 2025, naming none of them.
  • Apple applied a rule, unaskedPossible

    either its own review guidelines, or its own reading of a local law, with nobody having demanded anything. This is the largest category in Apple's own removal figures by a wide margin, and it covers distribution permits as well as content — Apple kept a free Bible app out of mainland China in 2021 for want of one. Apple's 2025 App Store Transparency Report

    • 58% of Games apps are unavailable in mainland China — 14,586 of 25,001 — against 28% of everything we test there.
  • The developer withheld itPossible

    freely, or under legal advice of their own, or because Apple's guidelines require that kind of app to be limited to certain countries. Switching a country off is easy for a developer to do in Apple's own tools: it needs no new version of the app, and it leaves no public trace other than the app being unavailable.

    • 58% of Games apps are unavailable in mainland China — 14,586 of 25,001 — against 28% of everything we test there.
  • Something brokeUnlikely

    a rejected update, a lapsed certificate, a payment or licensing problem, a mistake nobody has got round to noticing.

    • 58% of Games apps are unavailable in mainland China — 14,586 of 25,001 — against 28% of everything we test there.
    • Gone for 4 years.
  • A local rule about paying for itRuled out

    gambling licences, financial rules, tax — the kind of law that governs a transaction. Apple can obey every one of them by refusing the payment, which is why this is the only restriction we would accept and the only one that cannot touch a free app.

    • It is free, so Apple sells nothing here.
How this is weighed, and what it cannot tell you

Weighed from the evidence under each card, not from a model. There is no published figure for how Apple's removals divide up, so these are ordered words rather than percentages. For scale on the same-day counts: across the whole record an app leaves a storefront with fewer than two others, so a dozen at once is not a dozen coincidences.

None of this is certain, and a citation does not make it so: Apple naming a Chinese agency tells you what Apple said, not everything that happened. What can be said is that the readings alone cannot separate these five — a developer switching off a country and a government ordering it removed arrive at Apple's catalogue looking identical — and that nobody has ever measured how they divide across the App Store. The one careful study of the question was done on Google's store, using an error message Apple does not emit.

Apple publishes no record of which apps are unavailable in which of its App Stores. For the removals it makes on a government's demand it publishes the agency and the law behind every one — 2,045 of the 166,899 apps it removed during 2025 — and never which app. Where a reason reaches the public at all, it is usually because a developer chose to say so. Apple's App Store Transparency Report

Know of a statement, notice or order we have missed? Tell us →

画家大侦探

Developer: APPFAST ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE SERVICES JOINT STOCK COMPANY · Category: Games · Released: May 10, 2021 · Rating: 4.5★

View in App Store ↗
0stores where available
11stores where blocked
2.04Bpeople behind the block
11of 175 stores tested
26tests on record

Other Games apps missing from mainland China

Everything missing from mainland China →

Life of this app

  1. May 10, 2021Released on the App Store
  2. Mar 3, 2022First tested by AppleCensorship
  3. Mar 3, 2022Last seen available anywhere
  4. Apr 20, 2024Gone from 11 storefronts
  5. May 11, 2026Most recent test

Testing history

One column per month, every month from the first reading to the last. Height follows how many readings we took that month; red is the share of them that found the app unavailable. An empty month is one nobody tested.

2022-032026-05

Found availableFound unavailable

Availability by storefront

Every storefront we test, current status first. Data is a measurement, not a promise: each row carries its own date.

Test now
AustraliaAUUnavailableFeb 4, 20252 years ago
China (Mainland)CNUnavailableApr 20, 20245 months ago
NauruNRUnavailableFeb 4, 20255 months ago
NepalNPUnavailableApr 20, 20242 years ago
NorwayNOUnavailableApr 23, 20242 years ago
PortugalPTUnavailableApr 20, 20242 years ago
RussiaRUUnavailableApr 20, 20242 years ago
UkraineUAUnavailableApr 20, 20242 years ago
United Arab EmiratesAEUnavailableApr 20, 20245 months ago
United StatesUSUnavailableMar 3, 20225 months ago
VenezuelaVEUnavailableMay 11, 20265 months ago
AfghanistanAFNot tested——0
AlbaniaALNot tested——0
AlgeriaDZNot tested——0
AngolaAONot tested——0
AnguillaAINot tested——0
Antigua & BarbudaAGNot tested——0
ArgentinaARNot tested——0
ArmeniaAMNot tested——0
AustriaATNot tested——0
AzerbaijanAZNot tested——0
BahamasBSNot tested——0
BahrainBHNot tested——0
BarbadosBBNot tested——0
BelarusBYNot tested——0
BelgiumBENot tested——0
BelizeBZNot tested——0
BeninBJNot tested——0
BermudaBMNot tested——0
BhutanBTNot tested——0
BoliviaBONot tested——0
Bosnia & HerzegovinaBANot tested——0
BotswanaBWNot tested——0
BrazilBRNot tested——0
British Virgin IslandsVGNot tested——0
BruneiBNNot tested——0
BulgariaBGNot tested——0
Burkina FasoBFNot tested——0
CambodiaKHNot tested——0
CameroonCMNot tested——0
CanadaCANot tested——0
Cape VerdeCVNot tested——0
Cayman IslandsKYNot tested——0
ChadTDNot tested——0
ChileCLNot tested——0
ColombiaCONot tested——0
Costa RicaCRNot tested——0
Côte d’IvoireCINot tested——0
CroatiaHRNot tested——0
CyprusCYNot tested——0
CzechiaCZNot tested——0
DenmarkDKNot tested——0
DominicaDMNot tested——0
Dominican RepublicDONot tested——0
DR CongoCDNot tested——0
EcuadorECNot tested——0
EgyptEGNot tested——0
El SalvadorSVNot tested——0
EstoniaEENot tested——0
EswatiniSZNot tested——0
FijiFJNot tested——0
FinlandFINot tested——0
FranceFRNot tested——0
GabonGANot tested——0
GambiaGMNot tested——0
GeorgiaGENot tested——0
GermanyDENot tested——0
GhanaGHNot tested——0
GreeceGRNot tested——0
GrenadaGDNot tested——0
GuatemalaGTNot tested——0
Guinea-BissauGWNot tested——0
GuyanaGYNot tested——0
HondurasHNNot tested——0
Hong KongHKNot tested——0
HungaryHUNot tested——0
IcelandISNot tested——0
IndiaINNot tested——0
IndonesiaIDNot tested——0
IraqIQNot tested——0
IrelandIENot tested——0
IsraelILNot tested——0
ItalyITNot tested——0
JamaicaJMNot tested——0
JapanJPNot tested——0
JordanJONot tested——0
KazakhstanKZNot tested——0
KenyaKENot tested——0
KosovoXKNot tested——0
KuwaitKWNot tested——0
KyrgyzstanKGNot tested——0
LaosLANot tested——0
LatviaLVNot tested——0
LebanonLBNot tested——0
LiberiaLRNot tested——0
LibyaLYNot tested——0
LithuaniaLTNot tested——0
LuxembourgLUNot tested——0
MacaoMONot tested——0
MadagascarMGNot tested——0
MalawiMWNot tested——0
MalaysiaMYNot tested——0
MaldivesMVNot tested——0
MaliMLNot tested——0
MaltaMTNot tested——0
MauritaniaMRNot tested——0
MauritiusMUNot tested——0
MexicoMXNot tested——0
MicronesiaFMNot tested——0
MoldovaMDNot tested——0
MongoliaMNNot tested——0
MontenegroMENot tested——0
MontserratMSNot tested——0
MoroccoMANot tested——0
MozambiqueMZNot tested——0
Myanmar (Burma)MMNot tested——0
NamibiaNANot tested——0
NetherlandsNLNot tested——0
New ZealandNZNot tested——0
NicaraguaNINot tested——0
NigerNENot tested——0
NigeriaNGNot tested——0
North MacedoniaMKNot tested——0
OmanOMNot tested——0
PakistanPKNot tested——0
PalauPWNot tested——0
PanamaPANot tested——0
Papua New GuineaPGNot tested——0
ParaguayPYNot tested——0
PeruPENot tested——0
PhilippinesPHNot tested——0
PolandPLNot tested——0
QatarQANot tested——0
Republic of the CongoCGNot tested——0
RomaniaRONot tested——0
RwandaRWNot tested——0
São Tomé & PríncipeSTNot tested——0
Saudi ArabiaSANot tested——0
SenegalSNNot tested——0
SerbiaRSNot tested——0
SeychellesSCNot tested——0
Sierra LeoneSLNot tested——0
SingaporeSGNot tested——0
SlovakiaSKNot tested——0
SloveniaSINot tested——0
Solomon IslandsSBNot tested——0
South AfricaZANot tested——0
South KoreaKRNot tested——0
SpainESNot tested——0
Sri LankaLKNot tested——0
St. Kitts & NevisKNNot tested——0
St. LuciaLCNot tested——0
St. Vincent & GrenadinesVCNot tested——0
SurinameSRNot tested——0
SwedenSENot tested——0
SwitzerlandCHNot tested——0
TaiwanTWNot tested——0
TajikistanTJNot tested——0
TanzaniaTZNot tested——0
ThailandTHNot tested——0
TongaTONot tested——0
Trinidad & TobagoTTNot tested——0
TunisiaTNNot tested——0
TürkiyeTRNot tested——0
TurkmenistanTMNot tested——0
Turks & Caicos IslandsTCNot tested——0
UgandaUGNot tested——0
United KingdomGBNot tested——0
UruguayUYNot tested——0
UzbekistanUZNot tested——0
VanuatuVUNot tested——0
VietnamVNNot tested——0
YemenYENot tested——0
ZambiaZMNot tested——0
ZimbabweZWNot tested——0

Testing asks Apple whether it will sell this app in that storefront, right now, by the same method the crawler has used since 2019. Your browser asks Apple directly, so the answer describes what Apple serves your connection — and if your browser cannot reach Apple at all, we ask on your behalf and say so. The result is a link: open it to see Apple's own answer and check ours. Readings are added to the record above; roughly a quarter of the readings taken each day come from people testing.

How we test

Availability is checked against Apple's own catalog servers for every storefront, the same way the App Store app asks. "Unavailable" means Apple'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.