Apple has announced that the App Store had its best ever holiday season in 2015, setting records for Christmas and New Year’s Day. On January 1, spending went over $144 million, which broke the previous single-day record set on Christmas, a week earlier. Considering all of that, it’s no surprise that Apple saw some solid App Store sales numbers during the latest holiday season.
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Apple also said that it has now paid out over $40 billion to app developers, “with over one-third generated in the a year ago alone”.
Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, adds that $20 billion was spent in the App Store in 2015. That said, $1.1 billion is still a ton of money to pull in over a two-week period. And Apple has been ambitious about growing this part of the business: the company recently launched a version of the App Store for the Apple TV, as part of its bid to take over the living room. Last year, it opened a software marketplace for the Apple Watch and its latest Apple TV box. Games and subscription apps dominated this year’s top grossing titles including Clash of Clans, Monster Strike, Game of War – Fire Age and Fantasy Westward Journey, as well as Netflix, Hulu and Match. Apple claims indirect responsibility for nearly 2 million jobs in the United States, from the App Store economy. That’s particularly important for Apple to highlight amid persistent fears that sales of the iPhone – by far the largest source of the company’s profits – are going to slow down in 2016. We can’t wait for what’s to come in 2016.
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According to Apple Gaming, Social Networking and Entertainment were among the year’s most popular App Store categories across Apple products.
