Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. News

Apple customers spent record amount on apps on New Year’s Day

Trevor Mogg
By

With the ongoing pandemic keeping many people home during the holidays, owners of Apple devices opened their wallets and spent a record $540 million on the company’s App Store on New Year’s Day alone.

App Store sales of digital goods and services reached a whopping $1.8 billion in the weeklong period between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, the tech giant revealed on Wednesday, adding that the sales were driven mainly by spending on games.

Recommended Videos

“As the world navigated an ever-changing new normal of virtual learning, grocery deliveries, and drive-by birthday celebrations, customers relied on Apple services in new ways, turning to expertly curated apps, news, music, podcasts, TV shows, movies, and more to stay entertained, informed, connected, and fit,” Apple said in a message announcing the record spending.

The company said that videoconferencing service Zoom and on-demand video subscription service Disney+ were among the most downloaded apps of 2020, with both services picking up customers as the pandemic changed people’s daily habits.

Popular game downloads included titles such as Among Us and Roblox, according to Apple.

“In a year like none other, apps have become more essential than ever. Developers found new ways to keep people connected, help them learn and work from home, stay fit and well, and provide much-needed entertainment,” the iPhone maker said, adding that developers selling through the App Store have now earned more than $200 billion since the online store’s launch in 2008.

Many of the apps will have landed on Apple’s newest iPhone 12 handset, which launched toward the end of last year. All eyes are now on January 27, when Apple’s latest set of financial results — covering September through December 2020 — will reveal how well the new phone has been selling.

If you’re looking for some great games to play on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, be sure check out Digital Trends’ latest suggestions for the best ones available.

We also have a recently updated page highlighting some of the best apps for your Apple device.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Apple’s iOS 16.4 beta brings new emoji, web app notifications, and more
Sample of new emoji coming in iOS 16.4

Apple has just released the iOS 16.4 beta for developers and anyone else who wants a really early look at the new software. This is the first beta for iOS 16.4, following numerous releases for iOS 16.3.

The first highlighted items for iOS 16.4 are the new Unicode 15 emoji. These are the first new emoji in over a year. Some of these new emoji include a shaking face, pink heart, light blue heart, goose, donkey, angel wing, jellyfish, pea pod, ginger, folding hand fan, maracas, flute, and more. These new emoji additions were originally proposed in July 2022, and they were added to the Unicode standard in September 2022. It has taken a few months for these to get added to iOS because designers at Apple needed to create the icons with the information provided by the Unicode Consortium.

Read more
Guess how much Apple has paid App Store developers — you won’t even be close
Apple's App Store.

Since Apple launched the App Store in 2008, the tech giant has paid out an astonishing $320 billion to developers.

The data was revealed on Tuesday in Apple’s annual analysis of how the company's various services performed over the past year.

Read more
Sorry, but allowing third-party iPhone app stores is a bad idea
Apple Arcade page on the Apple Store as seen on the iPhone 14 Pro

Apple has always been known to have tight control over both its hardware and software, such as the iPhone and the iOS that powers it. However, it seems that the European Union continues to get more and more involved in regulating Apple’s most popular device, the iPhone.

So far, the EU has set a deadline for Apple to replace the Lightning port with USB-C by 2024, and more recently, it raised the possibility of opening up iOS to allow for sideloading and alternative app stores from third parties. Though this may seem like a good thing at first, I’m not so sure that’s entirely true. At the very least, it will cause some complications.
The App Store is a secure and trusted place

Read more