You’d think Christmas Day is the App Store’s most lucrative day, what with million of people unwrapping brand new iOS devices for the first time and itching to download new apps and games for them. It’s not actually. Apple has announced that during the first week of January alone, customers around the world spent almost half a billion dollars on apps and in-app purchases, with New Year’s Day 2015 the single biggest day in App Store sales history.
The good news doesn’t end there. Apple says this record week to open 2015 follows a “recording-breaking 2014 in which billings rose 50 percent and apps generated over $10 billion in revenue for developers.” Apple now says that App Store developers have cumulatively earned an insane $25 billion from the sales of their apps and games.
Even though Apple has steadily lost the market share battle to Android over the past few years, iOS still gets many of the world’s best apps first because iPhone and iPad users spend more money on apps than Android smartphone and tablet users. Because of this, developer interest in iOS has remained high despite the fact that Android should in theory be a more lucrative market given the big market share advantage it has over Apple’s mobile platform.
“This year is off to a tremendous start after a record-breaking year for the App Store and our developer community,” said Apple’s Eddy Cue. “We’re so proud of the creativity and innovation developers bring to the apps they create for iOS users and that the developer community has now earned over $25 billion.”