Apple: small developers on the App Store grew revenue by 71% over the past two years

In a message on its Newsroom page, Apple says that an independent study conducted by economists at Analysis Group found that small developers on the App Store grew their businesses and reached more customers around the world, even outpacing larger developers. 

With the support of a wide range of App Store tools and initiatives, small developers globally — defined as those earning up to $1 million a year and with fewer than one million annual downloads — grew revenue 71% between 2020 and 2022. In the U.S., those developers saw an above-average increase of 83% in earnings during the same period.

In a new study titled “Small Business Developers and App Creators on the App Store in 2022,” Analysis Group economists found that revenue growth for small developers active on the storefront since 2020 exceeded that of large developers as these entrepreneurs identified new ways to tap into the needs of their users. Small developers — who comprise more than 90 percent of all developers on the App Store — saw earnings increase across all app categories; health and fitness, sports, and lifestyle apps from small developers in particular more than doubled their earnings in the last two years.

Developers of all sizes have built successful businesses while benefiting from the App Store’s global reach in 175 countries and over 40 languages, and Apple’s installed base of over 2 billion active devices around the world. In 2022, nearly 80 percent of small developers were active on multiple storefronts and about 40 percent of total app downloads from all small developers came from users outside of each developer’s home country.

Additionally, the economists found that developers who monetize their apps by selling digital goods and services on multiple storefronts have earnings from users on more than 40 storefronts on average. according to the report.