Apple Says It Paid Out $60 Billion To App Store Developers In 2021

2021 came with mixed fortunes for tech giant, Apple as the iPhone maker faced numerous antitrust lawsuits, together with tighter regulations in host of markets but it wasn’t a bad year after all for the technology company as it today reported new figures that indicated its ‘App Store’ growth in the outgone year.

The Cupertino based company in a Press Release announced it had paid more than $260 billion to app developers ever since the launch of the App Store in 2008, a rise from the $200 billion figure the company reported at the end 2020, implying that they paid developers at least $60 billion alone in the year 2021, a lot larger number than the pay-outs recorded in the previous years.

Since the App Store debuted, the iPad maker had by the end of 2019 paid developers a total of $155 billion, a $35 billion increase from the $120 billion it reported in 2018. What this means is that there was a $45 million growth from 2019 to 2020.

With the percentages paid by individual apps varying, the pay-outs number the company shared cannot provide overall clarity on the general App Store’s earnings.

The iPhone maker has in recent years adjusted its commission to cut down its own share of the revenue accrued by developers, majorly as a result of its App Store business practices scrutiny by regulatory agencies, antitrust complaints and lawsuits. One of them is the ongoing court case Apple has with Epic Games, which is under appeal.

In November 2020, Apple at the Small Business program reduced its 30 percent commission on apps that earned up to $1 million to 15 percent. The company in 2021 also dropped commissions for select news publishers’ apps on the condition that they chose to participate in its Apple News Partner Program. But it is not clear how many developers and publishers have actually taken advantage of these opportunities, with Apple failing to clarify that, revealing only that a “vast majority” of apps would qualify for the small business discount.

With the announcement of a new Apple Store record, it appears the company is more concerned with self-aggrandizement on how much it makes rather than the transparency the action is intended to be. Apple though noted that the App Store customers had spent “more than ever” between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve in 2021, driving double-digit growth from last year.

Apart from releasing its App Store figures, the company also released updates on other services businesses like Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness+, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple News+, Apple Podcasts, Apple Books, Apple Pay and Wallet, Apple Maps and iCloud+.

The update announced that the Apple Arcade now features more than 200 games, Apple Music now has 90+ million songs in lossless audio, Apple TV+ has won 190 industry awards, Apple Fitness+ has grown to include nearly 2,000 sessions of workout content, Apple News remains the No. 1 news app everywhere it’s available, Apple Pay has reached nearly 60 countries and regions, and customers used 30 million NFC tickets in Apple Wallet in 2021.