Just forward of its Worldwide Developers Conference subsequent month, Apple on Thursday introduced new figures associated to the U.S. App Store’s monetary success. The firm says its U.S. App Store ecosystem has generated $406 billion in developer billings and gross sales in 2024 — a determine that’s almost tripled in dimension since 2019, when it then generated $142 billion.
Apple additionally made some extent to notice that, for 90% of the billings and gross sales facilitated by the App Store, builders paid no fee.
The new figures come from an Apple-funded examine performed by Professor Andrey Fradkin from Boston University Questrom School of Business and economist Dr. Jessica Burley from Analysis Group. The Analysis Group has been working with Apple for years amid rising antitrust scrutiny to create studies and research that showcase the App Store’s market energy in a extra favorable mild and as a web optimistic for builders.
In specific, these research have confused that solely a small sliver of Apple’s developer base even pays Apple commissions, and the vast majority of those that achieve this are on a Small Business plan or different applications the place their fee is diminished from the usual 30% to fifteen%.
However, these findings haven’t protected Apple from being pressured to open up the App Store to elevated competitors within the U.S.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers dominated that Apple had violated the court docket’s order arising from Fortnite maker Epic Games’ lawsuit that had required Apple to reform its App Store’s coverage round exterior funds. As a results of that ruling, Apple was pressured to let builders add hyperlinks to their app that time to net cost choices, the place Apple shouldn’t be allowed to take a fee.
Apple is now within the technique of interesting the ruling.
The years-long combat over App Store commissions has led to elevated hostility and disappointment from members of the iOS developer group, who consider that their functions are a part of the rationale for the iPhone’s historic success. Many really feel they need to be handled with extra gratitude for his or her efforts, and never as a useful resource to extract cash from.
Apple, however, staunchly believes that the App Store itself is the rationale for the builders’ success, because it gives {the marketplace} that enables shoppers to find new apps and simply pay for the builders’ software program and providers.
That comes by means of in Apple’s newest report as effectively, the place Apple notes that earnings for U.S.-based builders have greater than doubled over the past 5 years, whereas small enterprise builders have seen earnings improve by 76% from 2021 to 2024. (The latter quantity isn’t a surprise. In 2020, Apple launched its Small Business Program that diminished commissions for builders making lower than $1 million per 12 months. An earnings improve is to be anticipated.)
Apple additionally reminds U.S. builders that its App Store permits them to achieve a world market of 175 nations and areas, and it prevents billions in fraudulent transactions. Its developer investments embody 250,000 APIs, as a part of frameworks like HealthKit, Metal, Core ML, MapKit, and SwiftUI.
Additionally, the brand new report highlights how a lot builders are making from the App Store in areas the place they don’t need to pay fee.
For occasion, Apple says that final 12 months, the U.S. App Store ecosystem facilitated $277 billion in whole billings and gross sales from bodily items and providers, $75 billion from in-app promoting, and $53 billion from digital items and providers. It additionally notes that, since 2019, spending on bodily items and providers greater than tripled and in-app spending on digital items and providers and in-app promoting greater than doubled. General retail spending and grocery supply elevated greater than fourfold.
