Apple's App Store makes money for developers across games, utilities and social networking... [+]
There’s an app for that, we know. And now it seems there’s an App Millionaire for that, too.
This week, the app analytics platform Sensor Tower has reported data from its Store Intelligence product which states that app developers are reaching the million-dollar status almost twice as often on Apple’s App Store than on Google Play.
It says, “more app publishers are achieving an important milestone on Apple’s App Store than on Google Play. Based on our analysis of in-app revenue—not inclusive of advertising revenue—nearly double the number of publishers made their first $1 million in annual revenue last year on the U.S. App Store compared to Google Play.”
Now, before you think that app idea you had at the back of your mind really will make you as comfortable as Croesus, it’s not everybody who’s giving up their jobs and calling in rich.
The figures show that 66 publishers hit the $1 million revenue figure in 2016, against 39 doing the same on Google Play. That’s 1.7 times as many, not bad when you think that Apple’s market share is way less than Android.
Still, Google’s developers are doing well, too. In 2015 there were 14 Android developers who joined the millionaires’ club, so almost three times as many managed the same trick in 2016. Apple’s figure only rose from 39 to 66, not quite doubling the number. As Sensor Tower points out, this is a promising figure for Google.
Store Intelligence uses hundreds of millions of data points, Sensor Tower says, “to create deep, actionable insight into the App Store and Google Play.”
So if the app in your mind still intrigues you, it’s useful to know which kind of apps were turning people into millionaires. Sensor Tower says 47% of App Store millionaires had published games, while on Google Play games publishers accounted for a whopping 75%. Social networking app developers were the second-biggest category of these successful publishers.
Sensor Tower says Apple is likely to maintain the lead when it comes to monetization, with its consumers spending more per device than others, $40 per iPhone in 2016.
Popular categories included dating apps - which accounted for seven of the 66 App Store millionaires - and there was a diverse set of app types that made money. These ranged from entertainment to photo and video, from lifestyle to utilities. Something for everyone, then, so perhaps it is time to dust off that brilliant, gap-in-the-market-filling app idea.
