Apple has announced that App Store customers around the world made apps and games a bigger part of their holiday season in 2017 than ever before, culminating in $300 million in purchases made on New Year’s Day 2018. During the week starting on Christmas Eve, a record number of customers made purchases or downloaded apps from the App Store, spending over $890 million in that seven-day period.
“We are thrilled with the reaction to the new App Store and to see so many customers discovering and enjoying new apps and games,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, in a press release. “We want to thank all of the creative app developers who have made these great apps and helped to change people’s lives. In 2017 alone, iOS developers earned $26.5 billion — more than a 30 percent increase over 2016.”
Pokémon GO went back to the top of the App Store charts on Dec. 21 with the introduction of new augmented reality features, built on Apple’s ARKit framework. Customers are now enjoying close to 2,000 ARKit-enabled apps spanning every category on the App Store, said Schiller. Among the most popular AR titles are games such as CSR Racing 2, Stack AR and Kings of Pool; shopping apps like Amazon and Wayfair; education apps including Night Sky and Thomas & Friends Minis; and social media apps including Pitu and Snapchat.
Since the App Store launched in July 2008, iOS developers have earned over $86 billion.
