The takedowns come amid a crackdown on unlicensed games by
Chinese authorities.
Including the 39,000 games, Apple removed more than 46,000
apps in total from its store on Thursday. Games affected by the sweep included
Ubisoft title Assassin's Creed Identity and NBA 2K20, according to research
firm Qimai.
Qimai also said only 74 of the top 1,500 paid games on Apple
store survived the purge.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Apple initially gave game publishers an end-of-June deadline
to submit a government-issued licence number enabling users to make in-app
purchases in the world's biggest games market.
Apple later extended the deadline to Dec. 31.
China's Android app stores have long complied with
regulations on licences. It is not clear why Apple is enforcing them more
strictly this year.
Analysts said the move was no surprise as Apple continues to
close loopholes to fall in line with China's content regulators, and would not
directly affect Apple's bottom line as much as previous removals.
"However, this major pivot to only accepting paid games
that have a game licence, coupled with China's extremely low number of foreign
game licences approved this year, will probably lead more game developers to
switch to an ad-supported model for their Chinese versions," said Todd
Kuhns, marketing manager for AppInChina, a firm that helps overseas companies
distribute their apps.