Apple Customers Spent $386m In Single Day On App Store

Apple has revealed details about its “landmark year” in 2019, with users spending at record amounts for its services and in its App Store.

The iPhone maker revealed that customers had spent $1.42 billion on apps between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, which was a 16 percent jump from 2018.

In 2018, the European Commission drafted new rules that would place more controls on companies that offer online “intermediary” services, including search engines and app stores.

Landmark year

But this has done little to dampen its success, and it seems that Apple’s App Store continues to go from strength to strength.

In an announcement, Apple said that its App Store has over half a billion people visiting it each week.

“Since the App Store launched in 2008, developers have earned over $155 billion, with a quarter of those earnings coming from the past year alone,” said Apple. “As a measure of the excitement going into 2020, App Store customers spent a record $1.42 billion between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, a 16 percent increase over last year, and $386 million on New Year’s Day 2020 alone, a 20 percent increase over last year and a new single-day record.”

“2019 was the biggest year for Services in Apple’s history,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services.

“We introduced several exciting new experiences for our customers, all while setting the standard for user privacy and security,” said Cue. “We begin the new decade with incredible momentum and gratitude to our customers who have shown such enthusiasm for all of our Services, and we continue to celebrate the work of the world’s best creators, storytellers, journalists and developers.”

Most popular

It seems that for iPhone users, the most popular free apps were YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and Facebook Messenger.

For paid apps, the top performer was apparently Facetune, a photo editing app for iOS or Android phones, CNN reported.

Other popular paid apps include staff scheduling app HotSchedules and the DarkSky weather forecast app.

For free gaming, “Mario Kart Tour,” “Call of Duty: Mobile” and “Fortnite” made the list of top 10 free games.

Most popular paid mobile games included the likes of “Minecraft,” “Color Bump 3D” and “Stardew Valley”.

For the whole of 2019, Apple’s App Store generated $54.2bn in sales, up 16.3 percent from the year prior.

This is compared to the $29.3bn in sales that Android users on Google Play spent.

In 2013 Apple gave Brandon Ashmore from Ohio, a $10,000 App Store gift card when he downloaded the 50 billionth app from the App Store.

The App Store had opened in July 2008 with just 500 applications. As of 2017, the store featured over 2.2 million apps.

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