Apple has recently released a report highlighting the massive growth in its App Store ecosystem, which facilitated $1.1 trillion in developer billings and sales throughout 2022. A significant portion of this revenue—90%—was commission-free, a figure Apple likes to emphasize to counter ongoing complaints about the potentially high costs of operating in its marketplace. This $1.1 trillion comprises $910 billion from the sale of physical goods and services, $109 billion from in-app advertising, and $104 billion for digital goods and services.
The Analysis Group, which Apple began collaborating with in 2020, conducted the study that presents these results. The group helps Apple to highlight the vast commerce occurring within its app marketplace as regulators draft new rules to loosen the tech giant's grasp on the iOS app ecosystem. While the report's central focus revolves around total billings and sales by category, Apple also shared other figures illustrating the App Store's growth. Among these were a slight increase (29%) in developer billings and sales growth between 2021 and 2022, compared to the 27% growth seen during the two previous years. The earnings growth for small developers—a striking 71% between 2020 and 2022—outpaced that of larger app developers, Apple noted.
The report also highlights developer billings and sales by geography. For example, U.S. developers saw billings and sales increase by more than 80% since 2019, while European developers experienced a 116% growth. Notably, Europe is at the center of new regulations that will impose strict requirements on how the App Store functions. Under the European Union's Digital Market Act (DMA), which comes into force in 2024, major tech companies will be required to permit alternative app stores on their platforms. In addition, the Analysis Group examined application billings and sales growth across various sectors, including food and grocery, travel, and ride-hailing, among others. The post-COVID recovery of travel and ride-hailing apps resulted in an 82% and 45% increase in sales for those categories, respectively, in 2022.
Furthermore, sales of food delivery and pickup services have doubled since 2019, while grocery sales have tripled. Enterprise apps have become one of the fastest-growing categories, according to the report, which states that five out of the top 25 most downloaded apps in the U.S. are business-related. Furthermore, the entertainment category experienced the highest growth in digital goods and services, driven by the creator economy boom. This trend aligns with data provided by third-party app intelligence provider data.ai, which listed entertainment and social apps as the top global app subgenres in 2022.
The Analysis Group's study also looked at iOS app downloads, revealing that users downloaded applications over 370 billion times between 2008 and 2022. The App Store presently has around 1.8 million apps, a 123-fold increase from its figure in 2008. Apple's full report delves into more details about its ecosystem, including regional and category breakdowns, historical analyses, and additional information on trust and safety measures, like app rejections. These are also covered in a separate report released earlier this month.
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