At the very end of 2016, Apple’s iOS App Store experienced its biggest day ever, with iOS users spending approximately $240 million USD on apps, according to a recent Apple press release.
While a little surprising since you’d think Christmas day is when most people would get their hands on new iOS devices, it seems New Years is when iOS users really make it rain in the App Store.
All in, Apple says it paid out $20 billion to developers over the course of 2016, a 40 percent increase over last year. In total this means that $60 billion has been paid out to developers since the App Store’s initial launch back in 2008, with that number growing a third over just the past year. It is, however, important to keep in mind that in almost all cases Apple still takes a 30 percent cut from developer revenue earned via the App Store.
Canada didn’t make Apple’s list of the top global markets, with the U.S., China, Japan and the U.K. holding the top grossing spots in the App Store.
China, a relatively new market for Apple and a key geographical area in the company’s future growth strategy, experienced a 90 percent year-over-year increase.
Apple also announced that the iMessage App Store introduced with the launch of iOS 10, now has over 21,000 apps, though most of these applications are likely Sticker packs. For the iMessage app store to really become a viable platform, developers will eventually need to move beyond releasing generic emoji packs.
Perhaps most interestingly, Apple also says that its subscription business has grown to $2.7 billion in 2016, up 74 percent from 2015.
