Quick post today, working to have a comprehensive rundown of Windows Store stats about mid-day Friday (pending any sort of explosion in either the number of apps or my system that counts them). But today, wanted to run through the basic set of numbers most people are interested in.

Worldwide:

As of today, there are 7,873 Windows Store apps available worldwide. Of these, 88% (6,964) are free – mirroring the percentages first seen much earlier this month. The number of apps added per day has been rather significant, and includes 459 apps worldwide that have been added since I polled yesterday.

Almost all applications are available in both x86 and x64 architectures. Only two apps appear to solely target Windows RT (ARM), 31 target only Windows 8 x64 and don’t have Windows 8 x86 or Windows RT  support. The gap I first noticed some time ago is still there, however. While almost all apps support Windows 8 on x86 and x64, 6% of apps do not support Windows RT on ARM at this time. This may change after GA when developers can test on Windows RT systems – but it may always stay lower, reflecting the challenges of developing WinRT apps on Windows RT that I have heard from several developers.

Speaking of developers, there are now 3,367 distinct developers who have apps available on the store at the current time.

Of the total number of apps added since I polled yesterday, 219 were added to the US Windows Store (likely added to others as well). Something interesting happened this week, though. More apps have been added to the Chinese Windows Store than US English. As a result, the US Windows Store is now the second largest, at 4,516 Windows Store apps – while the Chinese Windows Store features 4,795 Windows Store apps.

US Store:

As I noted, the US Windows Store now features 4,516 apps. Of those, 83% (3,749) are free – indicating more willingness to try selling paid apps in the US store than across the average of all other markets. I haven’t analyzed what other markets may be featuring a higher percentage of paid apps – I may try to calculate that later this week or early next.

More important the count, the past two weeks have seen several significant applications come on line, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Food Network (what can I say, I’m a foodie), and of course Skype coming on line Friday with the GA of Windows 8 and Windows RT – when we can also (hopefully) expect many more apps. Next update – including pretty pictures and category breakdowns, will be available on Friday.