Consumers spent more than half a trillion dollars ($630B) in the App Store in 2020

Apple announced Wednesday that its App Store facilitated an estimated $643 billion in billings and sales in 2019, according to a new study commissioned by the tech giant. The sales figure marks a 24% jump from last year, as many consumers shop online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study from Analysis Group details how small businesses innovate on the App Store to reach customers around the world. The study also includes both transactions that Apple handles, such as paid apps and in-app purchases, as well as purchases and other economic activity that happened through iPhone and iPad apps where Apple wasn’t directly involved, such as sales of ads in apps.

Apple said that its developers grow their total billings and sales in the App Store ecosystem by 24 percent to $643 billion in 2020. Apple takes between 15% and 30% cut from purchases of software or digital goods from apps distributed through its App Store.

The new study, “A Global Perspective on the Apple App Store Ecosystem,” takes an in-depth look at how the App Store supported small businesses, which have quickly become a thriving and inclusive engine of opportunity for economies around the world.

Apple also announced that the number of small developers worldwide has grown by 40 percent since 2015 — and they make up more than 90 percent of App Store developers. The study defines small developers as those with fewer than 1 million downloads and less than $1 million in earnings across all their apps in a given year.

“Developers on the App Store prove every day that there is no more innovative, resilient, or dynamic marketplace on earth than the app economy,” says Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The apps we’ve relied on through the pandemic have been life-changing in so many ways — from groceries delivered to our homes, to teaching tools for parents and educators, to an imaginative and ever-expanding universe of games and entertainment. The result isn’t just incredible apps for users: it’s jobs, it’s an opportunity, and it’s untold innovation that will power global economies for many years to come.”

Below is a breakdown of the sales figures breakdown by category.

• $511 billion from sales of physical goods and services through apps, including $383 billion from retail apps, $38 billion through travel apps, and $36 billion from food delivery and pickup
• $86 billion from digital goods and services
• $46 billion from in-app advertising