In a press release today, Apple has highlighted how the App Store has grown tremendously in 2020 due to the pandemic that forced millions of people worldwide to stay at home. More importantly, Apple highlights that consumer spending on the App Store between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve reached a staggering $1.8 billion, up from $1.42 billion in 2019.

Customer spending also reached a record high on New Year’s Day with $540 million, a new single-day App Store spending record. This is again a massive jump from $386 million App Store spending that was recorded on New Year’s Day 2020. Apple also highlighted that Zoom and Disney+ were the most downloaded apps of the year, with games becoming “more popular than ever.” Genshin Impact set a new record for the most successful launch week ever on the App Store, with Among Us being another hit among iPhone and iPad users.

The company also notes that developers worldwide have earned over $200 billion since the launch of the App Store in 2008.

Apart from the App Store, other Apple services also grew tremendously in 2020. Apple Music had a “record year” which was further helped by the massive updates that Apple introduced in the Music app with iOS 14 that has been used by over 90% of iOS 14 users. Apple Books also saw “remarkable growth” in 2020 and now has over 90 million monthly active users. It also notes that Apple Pay is now accepted in over 90% of stores in the U.S., 85% in the U.K., and 99% of stores in Australia.

Our Take

The iOS App Store has become a major money-spinner for Apple and it keeps setting new revenue records every year. No wonder then that Apple is facing criticism from a number of developers for its App Store policies and why many regulators have launched an investigation against the company for this.