In a press release today, Apple shared App Store revenue numbers for the 2019 holiday season, which set an all-time record for single day sales on New Year’s Day:
Since the App Store launched in 2008, developers have earned over $155 billion, with a quarter of those earnings coming from the past year alone. As a measure of the excitement going into 2020, App Store customers spent a record $1.42 billion between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, a 16 percent increase over last year, and $386 million on New Year’s Day 2020 alone, a 20 percent increase over last year and a new single-day record.
In addition to apps, Apple recapped its other services:
- Apple Music, which added a time-synced lyrics feature that more than 50% of iOS 13 users have tried
- TV+, which is available in over 100 countries
- The TV app, which is available on Apple TV hardware, third-party TVs, and features over 30 channels
- Apple Arcade
- Apple News, which the company says has over 100 million monthly active users
- Podcasts
- Apple Card
- Apple Pay
- iCloud
More than 10 years later, the growth of the App Store is a story that is often overlooked. It’s remarkable to think that holiday sales are still setting records this long after the introduction of the App Store and after the pace of new device sales has slowed.
