June 5, 2025
UPDATE
World App Retailer helps builders attain new heights, supporting $1.3 trillion in billings and gross sales in 2024
For greater than 90 % of the billings and gross sales facilitated by the App Retailer ecosystem, builders didn’t pay any fee to Apple
Apple at this time introduced the worldwide App Retailer ecosystem facilitated $1.3 trillion in developer billings and gross sales in 2024, in keeping with a brand new examine by economists Professor Andrey Fradkin from Boston College Questrom Faculty of Enterprise and Dr. Jessica Burley from Evaluation Group. For greater than 90 % of the billings and gross sales facilitated by the App Retailer ecosystem, builders didn’t pay any fee to Apple.
“It’s unbelievable to see so many builders design nice apps, construct profitable companies, and attain Apple customers world wide,” mentioned Tim Cook dinner, Apple’s CEO. “This report is a testomony to the various methods builders are enriching individuals’s lives with app and sport experiences, whereas creating alternative and driving new improvements. We’re proud to help their success.”
Builders Expertise World Development Throughout the App Retailer
The brand new examine by Professor Fradkin and Dr. Burley highlights how builders on the App Retailer have extra methods than ever to monetize their apps. The examine discovered that in 2024, developer billings and gross sales for digital items and providers totaled $131 billion, pushed by video games, picture and video enhancing apps, and enterprise instruments. Gross sales of bodily items and providers exceeded $1 trillion, fueled by rising demand for on-line meals supply and pickup, in addition to grocery orders. In-app promoting income from advertisements positioned by builders of their apps was $150 billion.
Since 2019, spending throughout all three classes — digital items and providers, bodily items and providers, and in-app promoting — has greater than doubled. Bodily items and providers skilled the strongest development (+2.6x), pushed particularly by speedy will increase in meals supply and pickup, and grocery spending. Development in digital items and providers displays continued demand for video games and elevated spending on apps that help content material creation, comparable to picture and video enhancing apps. In the meantime, in-app promoting has helped hold many apps free or low-cost for customers. And the App Retailer continues to be a world launchpad for innovation, with AI-powered apps more and more shaping customers’ every day lives.
Regional Development Tendencies Across the World
The App Retailer’s engine of commerce offers builders with a world distribution platform that permits them to achieve customers world wide, attracting over 813 million common weekly guests worldwide. The examine discovered that over the past 5 years particularly, billings and gross sales facilitated by the App Retailer ecosystem greater than doubled within the U.S., China, and Europe. Spending on digital items and providers, bodily items and providers, and in-app promoting grew throughout all areas throughout that interval.
Digital cost spending grew over seven-fold within the U.S. since 2019 as cellular funds have turn into commonplace. In China, e-commerce marketplaces expanded considerably and on-line grocery spending grew over five-fold since 2019. Meals supply and pickup spending greater than tripled in Europe, outpacing the expansion in already standard classes like basic retail and journey. In Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and India, journey apps have been main spending classes.
Within the final 5 years, person spending on apps that help digital content material creation have seen a gradual improve. Consequently, picture and video enhancing apps like Adobe inventive instruments have discovered large success and have more and more launched new options to empower inventive professionals, creators, and hobbyists. Earlier this 12 months, Adobe launched a brand new Photoshop app on iPhone designed for picture and design lovers with an easy-to-use cellular interface. Adobe Lightroom was additionally acknowledged as Apple’s 2024 Mac App of the 12 months as a part of the App Retailer Awards for its high-quality picture enhancing and highly effective AI-powered enhancing developments on Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
Apple’s Funding in Builders
Apple invests in instruments and capabilities that make it simpler for builders to distribute their apps and video games, be found by customers across the globe, and develop profitable companies. For instance, the App Retailer’s commerce system helps builders with greater than 40 native currencies and offers seamless tax dealing with in practically 200 areas, whereas enabling builders to set costs, handle subscriptions, and extra.
Builders additionally profit from a collection of instruments and applied sciences — together with providers to develop and check their apps by Xcode and TestFlight, monitor app efficiency and benchmarks by App Analytics, and enhance efficiency with instruments like Product Web page Optimization — together with alternatives and sources to advertise their app. On the similar time, Apple’s built-in cost system helps shield customers from fraud and abuse; within the final 5 years, the App Retailer has protected customers by stopping over $9 billion in fraudulent transactions.
Apple additionally presents builders a wide range of on-line and in-person applications to empower them to raise their apps, together with Meet with Apple classes, appointments, and labs, and 24/7 entry to Apple Assist by way of cellphone and e mail in 9 languages. Apple Developer Facilities within the U.S., China, India, and Singapore have hosted tens of hundreds of builders within the final 12 months. The facilities function residence to year-round actions, providing supportive environments for groups to enhance their apps by greater than 250,000 APIs, together with as a part of frameworks comparable to HealthKit, Steel, Core ML, MapKit, and SwiftUI.
By a full, free curriculum for future skilled builders, Apple Developer Academies in Brazil, Indonesia, Italy, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and the U.S. assist college students construct foundational abilities in coding, AI, design, and advertising and marketing. Individually, greater than 20 Apple Basis Packages present college students of all ranges with the basics of app improvement by four-week intensive programs which might be obtainable throughout Apple’s 18 developer academies world wide.
Assets like Pathways and Apple Developer Boards can be found to higher join builders throughout the neighborhood and assist them simply entry instruments, documentation, and movies to create their finest merchandise on Apple’s platforms. Builders can share suggestions, request enhancements, or report bugs at any time with the Suggestions Assistant app or on the internet.
Subsequent week throughout Apple’s annual Worldwide Builders Convention, builders from each a part of the globe can have free entry to greater than 100 technical classes, diving deep into the most recent applied sciences and frameworks with Apple consultants. Builders will even have the ability to entry guides and documentation that may assist stroll them by the convention’s largest bulletins and keep updated with the convention throughout the Apple Developer web site, app, YouTube channel and Apple Developer WeChat. Apple Developer Program members and Apple Developer Enterprise Program members will even have an opportunity to attach instantly with Apple consultants by on-line group labs and one-on-one lab appointments.
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