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Apple commissioned a new study, revealing many details about the App Store economy in 2022. According to international economics consulting firm Analysis Group, this amount reached $1.1 trillion in billings and sales globally last year.
The study further shares that the App Store ecosystem grew between 27% and 29% annually over the past few years. It says that improvements in the pandemic situation have also contributed to the growth of certain app categories in the App Store in 2022 (e.g., up to 84% for travel and up to 45% for ride-hailing services. The study also states Apple customers have downloaded apps over 370 billion times while the developers have received over $320 billion in earnings directly on the App Store since the launch of the App Store 15 years ago.
On the other hand, while the $1.1 trillion amount sounds huge, the Analysis Group authors state that Apple didn’t receive commissions on over 90% of the said figure. As they explain in the paper, the $1.1 trillion in billings and sales that the App Store ecosystem facilitated came from billings and sales of digital goods and services consumed on iOS apps ($104 billion or 9%), sales of physical goods and services made on iOS apps ($910 billion or 81%), and in-app advertising on iOS devices ($109 billion or 10%).
“Apple only collects a commission on app purchases, in-app purchases, and in-app subscriptions that go through the App Store,” the paper reads. “No commission is collected on purchases of digital goods and services that happen outside of apps (e.g., purchasing a subscription to a newspaper through a web browser), on purchases of physical goods and services through apps (e.g., when a user pays for a ride on a ride hailing app or buys groceries online), or on in-app ad revenue.”
