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App Store Download and Revenue Figures Revealed
Rebecca Appleton • 1 June 2018
The App Store will soon celebrate its 10th birthday and in recognition of this milestone, some data has been revealed about its first decade of business. Compiled by an app intelligence firm, the data shows a staggering 170 billion app downloads have taken place on the App Store. Consumers have also spent a colossal $130 billion on the Store.
The $130 billion revenue and 170 billion app downloads have been calculated from 2010, when data first became available, which means the actual numbers may be even higher than that.
App Store Growth
The App Store first launched in July 2008 – back then it had 500 apps available for users. Fast forward 10 years and that figure is now around the 2 million mark (Google Play coincidentally has 3.8 million apps available to Android users).
The number of downloads has grown consistently, soaring in the last six years. This growth has been outpaced by spend though, with App Store revenue almost doubling between 2015 and 2017.
Market share
Apple released the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in China in 2014 and since then, the Asia Pacific (APAC) region has dominated App Store downloads and spend. While the EMEA and the Americas both account for 26% of downloads, APAC has surged to a 49% share.
The Asian market is now also the biggest contributor to App Store revenues – 59% of App Store spending originates in APAC. Europe is responsible for just 14% of consumer spend, while the Americas contributes 27%.
Historically, the US leads the way and is the top market for all time downloads and spend figures, but China is closing fast and could well overtake America in the next 12 months.
Users
The data reveals that in many countries (such as Australia, China, Germany and France), App Store users have as many as 100 apps installed on their phone. The average US consumer will have an average of 96 monthly app installs and the UK iPhone user 90.
Around 30 apps are used on average each month of all of those downloaded.
Categories
With millions of apps comes dozens of categories. The data shows that App Store users are enthusiastic gamers and there has been a surge in subscriptions for streaming apps such as Netflix.
Games, while not the most popular overall category for downloads, generate 75% of App Store revenue.
The top five most popular in-app subscriptions are Netflix, Tencent Video, Tinder, iQIYI and Pandora Radio. When subscription apps were first introduced in 2011, this list looked very different – the most popular app was Documents To Go, followed by Quick Office.
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