Apple's developer forums and Reddit are filling up with the same complaint: apps cannot get through review before going live on the App Store. Thread titles read like "stuck in Waiting for Review since October 8" or "about three weeks", and there is now a shared megathread.
Review normally takes a day or two. Apple's own App Review guidelines say half of submissions are checked in under 24 hours and 90% in under 48. Some teams have now been waiting since September 19.
Not the first time this year
A similar wave of complaints came in February, when at least 74 developers reported multi-week delays, and some of them were submitting routine bug fixes for apps that had already been approved.
In March Business Insider linked the delays to a flood of AI-coded apps, and in April The Information reported that submissions were up 84%.
What Apple says
The Register asked Apple for an explanation but had no reply at the time of publication. The company has not officially changed its review targets.
Our take
If you ship a mobile app, build extra review time into your release plan and do not leave urgent fixes until the last day. Logic that has to change quickly is better kept on the server or in a web version, so you do not depend on the store's queue. Details in The Register's article.