Apple provided its annual update on the performance of the App Store ecosystem this Thursday, ahead of its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) scheduled to commence next week. The technology titan announced that its App Store generated over $1.4 trillion in developer billings and sales in 2025, marking an increase from the $1.3 trillion reported at the same time last year.
This comprehensive figure, which encompasses all business activities conducted through applications on its platform, aims to illustrate the extensive financial opportunities the App Store cultivates for mobile developers, extending far beyond revenues solely from in-app purchases. It also serves to frame Apple's share of this economic activity — its commission on in-app purchases of digital goods — as a comparatively smaller segment of the overall market.
As highlighted in Apple's announcement, a significant 90% of the $1.4 trillion total involved transactions where developers were not subject to any commission fees.
Further breaking down the 2025 total, $1.1 trillion originated from sales of physical goods and services, while $149 billion came from billings and sales for digital goods. The latter category is predominantly subject to Apple's commission rates, which typically range from 15% to 30% depending on the transaction type and the size of the business. This figure for digital goods is notably higher than the $131 billion Apple disclosed last year. Regardless of the presentation, this segment undeniably represents a multi-billion-dollar market from which Apple derives revenue.
Additionally, Apple stated that in-app revenue generated from advertisements reached $151 billion in 2025, a modest rise from $150 billion in the preceding year.
Apple also underscored the App Store's extensive global reach, reporting an average of over 850 million weekly users spanning 175 countries and regions throughout 2025.
Notably, Apple specifically drew attention to artificial intelligence (AI) applications, remarking that 40 of the top 100 apps in 2025 featured consumer-facing AI capabilities. These AI-powered apps demonstrated stronger billing growth compared to other applications within the top 100. This observation could potentially set the stage for a WWDC announcement regarding Apple's strategies for integrating AI agents into its App Store, a development that has been widely rumored.
The company itself is also poised to make its own significant AI-related announcements at WWDC, with expectations for a revamped Siri and deeper AI integrations across its operating systems.
Apple's announcement further highlighted the App Store's robust growth in international markets, particularly in China, where facilitated billings and sales have more than doubled over the past six years. Concurrently, billings and sales within the App Store more than tripled in both the U.S. and Europe. As previously noted, the majority of this growth is attributable to transactions involving physical goods and services, such as retail, grocery delivery, ride-hailing, and travel.
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