Apple has announced some huge sales figures for the App Store during the holiday season, including $1.1 billion in total sales during the two week period ending on January 3.
That comes to around $770 million in total revenue for app developers, once Apple takes its 30 percent cut.
The App Store also broke a single-day record on January 1, with customers spending $144 million in 24 hours.
In total, the App Store made over $20 billion in sales through 2015. That’s $16 billion to app developers, around a third of the $40 billion in total revenue since the App Store inception in 2008.
App Store revenue appears to be growing at a considerable rate, possibly due to the rise of iPhone sales in China over the past two years. The App Store is China sells apps for a lot less than the U.S. equivalent, but there are more phone sales in China than anywhere else in the world.
If you follow the rise of App Store revenue over the past few years, 2016 should be a massive year for app developers. That said, mobile growth is slowing, and we suspect that will have an effect on app sales.
Gaming, social networking, and entertainment were the top three categories in 2015. Facebook, WeChat, and Snapchat were apparently the three stars of social networking, while subscription services like Netflix, Hulu, and Match were also on the rise.
Apple claims the App Store has created 1.9 million jobs in the United States, and 1.4 million of those jobs are app creators, engineers, and entrepreneurs.
Worldwide, Apple indirectly provides jobs for over 4 million people, with 1.4 million in China and 1.2 million in Europe.
Those are impressive statistics, showing the growth of the app economy and the amount of people that require the App Store to continue working.
Next year, we expect to see the Apple Watch 2, an iPad refresh, and the iPhone 7, which should bring new innovative ideas to the app store. We might also see Apple dabble into the entertainment market, with the TV streaming service that has been rumored for over six months now.
