Apple App Store rakes in $193 million on Christmas

Spurred by new device sales, first-time mobile users, and consumers “flush with gift card credit,” worldwide spending across the Apple App Store and Google Play on Christmas topped $277 million according to Sensor Tower Store Intelligence estimates, with the former coming out the clear winner.

This represents combined year-over-year growth of 11.3% for the online stores, which brought in a total of $249 million in user spending on the same day in 2018. Consumer spending in apps and mobile games on Christmas accounted for about 5% of all revenue generated by the stores for December, which reached nearly $5.1 billion globally. This was 8% greater than the approximately $4.7 billion spent across both platforms during December 2018.

The majority of mobile spending on Christmas, approximately $210 million, was focused on the Games category, which generated 76% of revenue, according to Sensor Tower. Non-game apps accounted for approximately 2% more of all spending this Christmas compared to a year prior, bringing in an estimated $67 million.

Apple’s App Store accounted for 70% of spending between the two platforms at $193 million, growing about 16% year-over-year. Approximately $84 million was spent on Google Play, which represented year-over-year growth of 2.7%.