Appfigures: Apple made over $10B from US App Store comissions last year

Over $10 cardinal — that’s however overmuch gross Apple’s U.S. App Store raked successful past year, according to a caller investigation by app quality supplier Appfigures.

The firm’s estimates bespeak that U.S. App Store gross from commissions much than doubled betwixt 2020 and 2024. In 2020, Apple’s stock of App Store commissions was astir $4.76 billion, increasing to implicit $10.1 cardinal by 2024.

Based connected Appfigures’ data, U.S. App Store developers generated $33.68 cardinal successful gross gross from their apps and games utilizing Apple’s payments strategy successful 2024, and took location $23.57 cardinal aft Apple’s cut.

Image Credits:Appfigures

Though Apple doesn’t typically interruption retired its App Store gross during earnings, it did people a study successful May 2023 wherever it said the App Store globally generated $104 cardinal successful estimated billings for integer goods and services successful 2022.

However, Appfigures’ investigation recovered the App Store made $61.5 cardinal globally successful 2022, which grew to $91.3 cardinal successful 2024. From this, Apple made much than $27.39 cardinal successful commissions globally past year, Appfigures besides said.

That leads to a discrepancy betwixt Appfigures’ investigation and Apple’s own.

This tin beryllium explained by an important caveat recovered successful Apple’s report. Under Apple’s chart, it states that its “billings and sales” figures are “not the aforesaid arsenic App Store billings.” That’s important here.

When Apple wrote its report, the institution was trying to amusement however large the App Store is and however cardinal it is to the wide economy, truthful it merged App Store gross with gross generated extracurricular the App Store to make its full for the “Billings and Sales” category.

In the report, Apple calculated the information of an app’s full gross that is facilitated by the App Store, adjacent if the acquisition was made elsewhere. For instance, if a idiosyncratic buys a subscription to Hulu connected the web, but past spends 60% of their clip streaming Hulu connected Apple devices, Apple credits itself with facilitating 60% of that user’s spend. (To find usage, the study relied connected third-party sources, similar marketplace probe firms, to estimation however overmuch usage occurred connected smartphones versus tablets, desktops, oregon TVs.)

Apple besides allows enterprises to administer apps with in-app purchases, but these aren’t disposable successful the App Store.

“Grave Irreparable Harm?”

Examining the numbers astir U.S. Apple App Store gross is much applicable than ever successful the aftermath of the caller tribunal ruling that present prevents Apple from charging a 27% committee connected transactions that instrumentality spot extracurricular the App Store.

Apple initially attempted to comply with the court’s injunction resulting from its antitrust conflict with Fortnite shaper Epic Games by making changes that wouldn’t harm App Store profits.

To bash so, Apple past twelvemonth gave developers a mode to use for an objection to its App Store rules truthful they could adhd web links wrong their apps that directed customers to outer purchases. However, Apple continued to complaint a 27% committee connected those purchases and dictated however the website links should appear. (This adjacent included the usage of “scare screens” to pass consumers of the dangers of making purchases extracurricular the App Store.)

Last week, a justice ruled that Apple was successful “willful violation” of the 2021 injunction by continuing to cod fees connected purchases made extracurricular apps and by creating caller anticompetitive barriers.

This determination forced Apple to update its U.S. App Store rules, which present let developers to nexus retired to different ways for consumers to marque purchases, without obstacles oregon commissions. Since then, respective apps person taken vantage of the quality to present web payments, including Spotify, Amazon Kindle, and Patreon. One tiny crippled emulator called Delta is present supporting itself via Patreon memberships, too.

Apple is appealing the decision, arguing successful its astir caller filing that the ruling causes Apple “grave irreparable harm.”

“These restrictions, which volition outgo Apple important sums annually, are based connected behaviour that has ne'er been adjudicated to beryllium (and is not) unlawful,” Apple’s filing stated. “Rather, they were imposed to punish Apple for purported non-compliance with an earlier state-law injunction that is itself invalid.”

This statement won’t apt spell implicit good with developers, arsenic galore judge Apple should person lowered commissions for everyone years ago, not conscionable for small concern developers.

Appfigures’ investigation besides broke down U.S. App Store gross by apps and games, which generated Apple astir $6.28 cardinal and $3.83 billion, respectively, successful 2024.

Together, these figures item however captious App Store gross remains to Apple’s bottommost line, and wherefore it’s warring truthful hard to clasp control.