Apple’s App Store generated about $50 billion revenue in 2019; paid out $155 billion to developers since 2008

Tech giant Apple reported around $50 billion in sales from its App store last year, the company made the revelation during an interview with CNBC. The company also announced Wednesday that it has paid $155 billion to developers since 2008, up from $120 billion disclosed in January 2019. That means the company’s App Store had total sales maxing out at $50 billion in 2019, assuming developers take 70% of app sales, and generated about $15 billion in revenue for Apple.

That’s a massive revenue for part of a company. To put it into perspective, at $50 billion in sales per year, the App Store alone would be number 64 on the Fortune 500, ahead of Cisco and behind Morgan Stanley. Apple’s App Store was opened on July 10, 2008 with an initial 500 applications available. As of 2017, the store has grown to over 2.2 million apps. Developers have multiple options for monetizing their applications, ranging from free, free with in-app purchases, and paid.

On January 4, 2018, Apple announced that the App Store had a record-breaking holiday season according to a new press release. During the week starting on Christmas Eve, a record number of customers made App Store purchases, spending more than $890 million in that seven-day period. On New Year’s Day 2018 alone, customers made $300 million in purchases.

Apple does not disclose the total amount of revenue that its App Store brings in per year. However, the tech firm has published other App Store data each January since 2013. That includes the total amount of funds it pays to developers, who receive 70 percent of an app’s purchase price in the first year and 85 percent in a subscription’s second year.