In brief
In 2018, 164 App Store developers and 88 Google Play developers earned over US$1 million for the first time. The App Store’s new million-dollar developers spanned a broader range of categories, while 65% of Google Play’s were primarily focused on games. More developers were moving from advertising to subscriptions to increase revenue.
According to Sensor Tower’s latest app market statistics, both Apple’s App Store and Google Play saw many more developers earn over US$1 million in app revenue in 2018, with the number reaching a new high on both platforms. A growing number of developers are moving their apps from advertising-based models to subscription models, generating higher revenue.
Apple’s App Store saw 164 developers earn over US$1 million in revenue for the first time. Apple earned more than US$50 million in profit from its 30% share of these newly minted million-dollar developers’ app revenue alone. Among the App Store’s new million-dollar developers/publishers, approximately 30% had games as their main app category. Health and fitness accounted for 12%, while lifestyle and photo and video apps accounted for 10% and 8%, respectively. Social networking, entertainment and education each accounted for 5%, with other categories making up the remaining 21%. These figures suggest that the App Store’s app ecosystem is relatively mature, enabling developers across various app categories to earn reasonable profits.
In a recently issued press release, Apple announced plans to invest in a new campus in Austin, Texas. Figures provided in the release stated that app development for the App Store had created more than 1.5 million jobs in the United States.
By comparison, Google Play had only 88 developers reach US$1 million in revenue for the first time in 2018, roughly half the App Store’s figure. However, this represented 20% growth over the previous year. Among Google Play’s new million-dollar developers/publishers, 65% had their main app category in games. Social networking accounted for 6%, while sports, utilities, and health and fitness each accounted for 5%. The remaining 14% consisted of app developers/publishers in other categories. These figures suggest that Google Play’s high-revenue developers were more concentrated in gaming apps.
Original article URL: https://goo.gl/4eoK9V