App Store revenue of small devs grew by 71% in two years

Apple says small developers selling software via its App Store have seen revenue grow by 71%, citing an Analysis Group survey it commissioned. It’s an update to the App Store report Apple published in May last year.

Revenue climbed between 2020-2022

According to the company, this 71% increase in revenue was seen between 2020 and 2022, which presumably reflects increased use of apps as we all stayed home during the early Covid crisis. Growth in the US is slightly higher, where earnings increased 83%.

What is a small developer? For its work, Analysis Group defines this as those who have under a million annual downloads and earn up to $1 million a year.

Importantly, given that developers of this size pay a reduced 15% fee to Apple for sales via the store, the report tells us that over 90% of developers at the App Store are small. This means that a very small number of developers pay 30% — they just have the PRs to make a noise about it. The report claims revenue growth for small developers outpaced that of larger ones across all app categories.

International stage

Reflecting the international reach of its stores, Apple’s report also points out that 80% of small developers sell their wares across multiple stores in different nations and pick up around 40% of their app downloads from nations other than their own.

Analysis Group economists also found that thousands of new developers and entrepreneurs joined the App Store in 2022 from all over the world. Of this set of new developers, approximately 25 percent came from Europe, 23 percent from China, 14 percent from the U.S., 4 percent from Japan, and 35 percent from other regions including South Korea, India, and Brazil.

[Also read: Morgan Stanley: Microsoft may threaten Apple’s App Store]

It is interesting that the report also hints at some of the evolution that takes place among App Store developers.

A code to riches story

For example, it says 40% of developers now earning over a million dollars a year were either not on the store or earned under $10,000 a year just five years ago. Announcing the report, Apple also took note of the many thing it does to support and help developers, including provision of software, developer tools and services, and also extending to initiatives such as its App Store Foundations program.

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