en.Wedoany.com Reported - On June 4, Apple Inc. announced that developer billings and sales facilitated by the global App Store ecosystem exceeded $1.4 trillion in 2025, setting a new record. Apple stated that the App Store ecosystem has nearly tripled in size since 2019.
The study breaks down the economic scale of the App Store ecosystem into categories such as physical goods and services, digital goods and services, and in-app advertising. In 2025, sales of physical goods and services reached $1.1 trillion, with growth primarily driven by consumer scenarios including groceries, food delivery and pickup, general retail, and travel. Billings and sales of digital goods and services totaled $149 billion, mainly fueled by games, enterprise applications, and video streaming apps. Developers earned $151 billion from in-app advertising. Apple also noted that over 90% of the billings and sales facilitated by the App Store ecosystem do not require developers to pay commissions to Apple. For Apple, this data underscores the value of its ecosystem platform, which it has long emphasized: beyond digital content revenue sharing, the App Store supports a vast array of offline consumption, retail transactions, travel, tourism, and local lifestyle services completed through apps.
Artificial Intelligence applications emerged as a key growth driver in Apple's disclosure. Apple stated that in 2025, over 40 of the top 100 apps on the App Store feature consumer-facing AI capabilities, and these apps are experiencing faster billing growth. As apps for image editing, health management, office productivity, learning tools, content creation, and smart assistants increasingly integrate AI capabilities, the App Store is evolving from a traditional mobile app distribution channel into a gateway for AI applications to enter consumers' daily usage scenarios. Apple also leveraged this to highlight the role of its developer tools, platform frameworks, and Apple Intelligence-related capabilities in supporting app innovation, particularly in strengthening differentiation in areas such as on-device intelligence, privacy protection, and offline inference.
From a regional market perspective, the growth of the App Store ecosystem is not limited to a single country or a few app categories. Apple disclosed that over the past six years, billings and sales facilitated by the App Store in the Chinese market have more than doubled, while those in the U.S. and Europe have more than tripled. Physical goods and services account for the majority share in all major regions, with general retail ranking as the top category in each market. Travel holds a significant position in physical goods and services consumption in markets such as the U.S., Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil. In South Korea, demand for food delivery and pickup is notably strong, while in China, local consumption such as groceries and food delivery continues to drive in-app transaction activity. This indicates that mobile apps have become deeply embedded in various daily scenarios, including retail, travel, lifestyle services, entertainment, office work, and health. Competition among platform ecosystems has also expanded from app quantity to areas such as payments, distribution, security, advertising, AI capabilities, and developer service systems.
Apple's decision to release this study ahead of its Worldwide Developers Conference also signals its continued efforts to strengthen the narrative around its developer ecosystem. As countries regulate app store commissions, third-party payments, sideloading openness, and platform rules, the commercial value and governance model of the App Store remain under ongoing discussion. The $1.4 trillion ecosystem scale provides Apple with a data foundation to showcase the platform's spillover value, but digital goods revenue sharing, payment pathways, and developer costs remain key market concerns. Going forward, Apple's ability to balance AI features, developer tools, and platform openness will influence the App Store's competitive position in the next cycle of mobile AI applications.
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