Daniel Slotta
Research expert covering Greater China
Apple App Store - statistics & facts
The App Store is one of Apple’s revenue-driving forces, generating billions of U.S. dollars in consumer spending every year. The Apple App Store works as a centralized platform for app promotion, distribution, and management: users get recommendations for apps they might want to download, can access top rankings for app categories, and can get reminders of apps’ latest updates.
Gaming apps accounted for around 12 percent of all the mobile iOS apps hosted in the store, while business apps accounted for 10 percent of all active apps on the platform during the second quarter of 2024. As of the third quarter of 2023, iOS apps had a retention rate of 12 percent after three days from the first download, which tended to decrease to 3.7 percent after 30 days.
The Apple App Store consistently registers higher revenues than its main competitor, the Google Play Store. During the second quarter of 2024, the Apple App Store generated approximately 25 billion U.S. dollars in consumer spending on in-app purchases, subscriptions, and one-time payments. During the first half of 2024, the United States was the largest market for iOS, as users in the country spent approximately 6.5 billion U.S. dollars on the Apple App Store. China and Japan followed, with consumers spending 4.6 billion U.S. dollars and 1.73 billion U.S. dollars, respectively.
The Epic Games v. Apple ruling sided with Apple, stating that the company was not acting as a monopolist, but it also kick-started a series of legal propositions from app developers in their domestic market and abroad to change the Apple App Store dynamics and allow third-party payments. In the European Union, Apple had to settle for a lengthy set of changes to its app store operations due to the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA). Since August 2024, publishers in the EU will see different commission rates applied by the Apple App Store to their businesses: EU app revenues will be subjected to a standard 17 percent commission on in-app purchases made via iOS and iPadOS, contrary to the 30 percent fee, publishers who retain subscribers for over 12 months will see their commissions lowered to 10 percent, versus the 15 percent applied to the rest of global publishers.
Apple App Store: a meteoric rise
The Apple App Store, which started with a limited pool of 500 applications in 2008, counted around 1.54 million mobile apps available exclusively to iOS users as of the second quarter of 2024.Gaming apps accounted for around 12 percent of all the mobile iOS apps hosted in the store, while business apps accounted for 10 percent of all active apps on the platform during the second quarter of 2024. As of the third quarter of 2023, iOS apps had a retention rate of 12 percent after three days from the first download, which tended to decrease to 3.7 percent after 30 days.
The Apple App Store consistently registers higher revenues than its main competitor, the Google Play Store. During the second quarter of 2024, the Apple App Store generated approximately 25 billion U.S. dollars in consumer spending on in-app purchases, subscriptions, and one-time payments. During the first half of 2024, the United States was the largest market for iOS, as users in the country spent approximately 6.5 billion U.S. dollars on the Apple App Store. China and Japan followed, with consumers spending 4.6 billion U.S. dollars and 1.73 billion U.S. dollars, respectively.
Apple and app publishers: a revolution in the making?
Standard publishers’ fees to monetize on the Apple App Store have been set at 30 percent commissions for all in-app purchases, subscriptions, or paid downloads, with free hosting for all apps. App and mobile gaming publishers have been complaining about platform commissions, a lack of direct interaction with users, and the impossibility of redirecting users toward third-party payment systems. The 2020 Epic Games v. Apple legal dispute ignited both institutional and public discussion over the app store commissions. In August 2020, Epic Games began promoting the option of using third-party payment systems for in-app sales on its popular game Fortnite. This resulted in Apple and Google removing Fortnite from their app stores and Epic Games hitting both tech giants with antitrust lawsuits.The Epic Games v. Apple ruling sided with Apple, stating that the company was not acting as a monopolist, but it also kick-started a series of legal propositions from app developers in their domestic market and abroad to change the Apple App Store dynamics and allow third-party payments. In the European Union, Apple had to settle for a lengthy set of changes to its app store operations due to the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA). Since August 2024, publishers in the EU will see different commission rates applied by the Apple App Store to their businesses: EU app revenues will be subjected to a standard 17 percent commission on in-app purchases made via iOS and iPadOS, contrary to the 30 percent fee, publishers who retain subscribers for over 12 months will see their commissions lowered to 10 percent, versus the 15 percent applied to the rest of global publishers.
Apple long-standing impact on the app economy
The Apple App Store was the first native application of its kind, and it was designed to deliver mobile apps to all iOS users. Despite pioneering the distribution of mobile apps and promoting a new revenue model for developers, the Apple App Store might be facing a revolution in the next years. While consumers want to sideload mobile apps from alternative app stores, developers have been complaining about high fees, leading institutions and companies to question the role of the tech giant in the app ecosystem. Despite security doubts and legal victories, Apple has been losing its hold on app developers and relinquishing some of its power to local jurisdictions in several of its top markets.
