Mac App Store Review Times Increasing
Average app review times for my Mac app (launched in 2019) have gone up by 3-5x and, it appears others too (tons of posts on Apple’s forums like this one). Mac app reviews now typically take 5 days, and I’m seeing lots of reports of 10+ day waits for some. While iOS app reviews have been faster for me, others have seen big delays there too. It just varies, but it’s clear that reviewers are underwater. This is very likely do to the rise in AI-assisted coding, which has in turn led to more app submissions. According to AppFigures, App Store submissions rose 24% in 2025 through November. According to Runway data, January and February’s average review time and max review times were significantly higher than they were in the last 4 months of 2025.
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I and others have also run into delays in app processing too (which must happen before a build can even be submitted for review) and have personally seen it take up to 10 hours!
Previously:
- Mac App Store Design in Tahoe
- LLMs and Software Development Roundup
- New App Store Review Processes
- Inside Apple’s App Review Team
- Apple Shortening App Review Times
- Mac App Store Review Times
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Can confirm that I'm seeing similar "Waiting for Review' delays for my apps.
It seems to vary by OS as well. In 2026, the general time spent for a submission to be "Waiting for Review" before a reviewer even starts reviewing has been:
- tvOS: 1 day
- iOS: 2-3 days
- macOS: 5-7 days
This is significantly longer than the average in 2025, which I would have guessed would have been an average 1-2 days, irrespective of the OS.
Also puzzling why there is always a variation in responsiveness by OS; despite pushing similar updates, at the same time, to all supported OS's.
It looks like App reviewers may only review a particular OS submissions and aren't re-allocated to other OS platform reviews when there is a high load and/or Apple prioritises reviewing one OS's platform submissions above another. Both of these approaches would be inefficient and puzzling if it is indeed the approach. It looks like this may be the case though, as I can't think of any other explanation to why certain OS submissions are always reviewed quicker than others.
