App Store: Almost half of revenue comes from subscriptions

It's a bit like the American dream of going from rags to riches: Anyone hoping to get rich by developing an app not only has to work hard, but apparently also needs a large dose of luck. New figures from the analyst firm Appfigures, which specializes in app stores, show that only a few people make a lot of money with apps – and that app downloads have apparently passed their peak. Most of the money is now made with in-app subscriptions.

At first glance, the trend in 2024 looks quite positive. According to the report, total revenue from apps has risen to 127 billion US dollars, which corresponds to growth of 15.7% compared to the previous year. The positive development is primarily driven by Apple's App Store, say the analysts based on their own surveys. The App Store generated sales of 91.6 billion US dollars, 24 percent more than in the previous year. In contrast, the Play Store of competitor Google saw a slight decline of 1.5 percent to 35.7 billion US dollars. The huge sales gap remains striking, although Google's platform has a very high reach on Android devices.

Download figures declining

According to Appfigures, download figures are declining across the board despite increased sales. There were 28.3 billion downloads of iOS apps, a decrease of 1.1 percent, and 81.4 billion downloads of Android apps, 2.6 percent less than in the previous year. There were positive developments in Mexico, where downloads increased by 225 million. In Brazil, sales grew by 73 percent.

According to the Appfigures figures, the switch from one-off app purchases to in-app subscriptions, which is particularly supported by Apple, is increasingly bearing fruit. Almost half of sales now come from subscriptions. However, only five percent of all apps offer subscriptions at all. The top 10 apps alone account for 13.7 percent of total revenue, compared to 12.5 percent in the previous year.

Fewer spam apps in the Google Play Store

Another positive observation: the number of newly published apps on Google Play has fallen by 60 percent – This is due to Google's efforts to increase quality requirements in order to keep spam apps out.

Appfigures did not provide any information on the sources of the figures in the context of the current publication. In addition to Apple's and Google's publications, however, analytics data from the company's customers and other data from third-party databases and SDKs are once again likely to play a major role based on previous information. Apple itself does not provide such far-reaching insights into the App Store figures.

(mki)