Almost half of developer revenue now comes from subscriptions

Analytics data suggests that we’re downloading fewer iPhone apps this year than last, but spending significantly more money on them. That’s because almost half of developer revenue now comes from subscriptions.

App Store downloads declined slightly in the past 12 months, but the total spend increased dramatically from $73.7B last year to $91.6B this year …

App downloads down, spending up

Analytics company Appfigures reports that total app downloads were down 2.3% while spending was up 15.7% – but that was entirely down to the Apple ecosystem. TechCrunch reports:

In 2024, global consumer spending in mobile apps and games reached $127 billion across the App Store and Google Play, up 15.7% from the prior year. However, those increases were driven by Apple’s App Store, as Google Play spending declined.

It’s all about subscriptions

We don’t have to look far for an explanation of how we’re downloading fewer apps but spending much more money on them.

Only 5% of apps worldwide offered subscriptions last year, but they accounted for 48% of the app revenue across both app stores, Appfigures found.

In the US, Temu was the most downloaded app

It’s also unsurprising that social apps topped the worldwide rankings, but within the US the most downloaded app was actually Chinese shopping app Temu. This aligns with the same rankings by Apple.

Photo by Vitaly Taranov on Unsplash