4 ms·

Only 3.5% of all mobile apps reach $10k monthly

31 points by AlgoRitmo 3y ago

onion2k 3y ago
That's far higher than I'd have expected.
- rhelz 3y ago
  IKR? I only have to make 100 apps and I'll have $30k a month income....
  - nadermx 3y ago
    Seems about right
  - ametrau 3y ago
    This is sarcasm yeah?
    - rhelz 3y ago
      That depends on how well my apps sell....
dsq 3y ago
The article states this is for both Google and Apple, but it's probably much lower for Android.
- throwaway-blaze 3y ago
  70+% of revenue for subscription apps comes from the Apple side, at least in western markets.
suddenclarity 3y ago
* of mobile apps with subscriptions
- jamil7 3y ago
  I think that goes without saying, it's virtually impossible to make a living with a paid up front app now.
Rallen89 3y ago
Is there a reason for the categorisation of the EMEA[0] region? seems too broad to make actionable conclusions, I'd assume the LTV of a western European would be different then someone in South Sudan. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe,_the_Middle_East_and_Africa https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe,_the_Middle_East_and_...
- dude187 3y ago
  I assume time zone. It's very useful in dividing follow the sun team coverage
  - Rallen89 3y ago
    just seems like a waste to lose both developing markets and an already developed high income market to averaging a huge region of different income levels
araes 3y ago
Although the Apple Insider article notes that you have to provide an email, the full article [1] actually has quite a bit of additional info. Some pretty interesting, and rather sobering. Gaming is such dice throw (appropriately). It has the fastest subscriber growth, yet tops out worse than almost every other category, and has horrible 14 day, 60 day, and yearly average money. Only travel, productivity, and shopping (?) are worse. Shopping must not be tracking monetization correctly. Wow, gaming is so bad in almost every category. Offer usage, trial conversions, using any long subscription... If your game fails at launch, you might as well dump it immediately, or re-release some other way. Looking at this kind of data, its no surprise so many parts of the web have turned into one-off demo sites with signups. If it doesn't get immediate traction, move onto the next project. The biggest surprise personally, was how much better health care was than every category at 14 and 60 day earnings. Looking at those charts, why would you make anything other than a health and fitness app in North America with Apple Search Ads. Education in South Korea seems kind of nice, until you see the refund rate of double the next worst. On the submission title topic, even the low end is kind of bad. Not just you won't be a superstar. Most apps never make more than $50/month. Even in the upper 75% you're looking at ~$200/month. So if I spend a month each year making an app (hopefully none ever get feature creep, the last took 3 months), and get some kind of average result, each of my median apps will generate ~$50/month, and I will spend 12 months earning $600/month, or $7000/year, with only 30% yearly retention and dropping retention rates. Plus, all the maintenance and community support for 12 (likely only 4 or less) different apps. While Google and Apple probably publish "official" products for anything really juicy to harvest my users. If I get lucky, and one of my apps makes it into the top 5% category, then I might make $10,000+/yr. About 1.5% seem to make it into the $25,000/yr category. Social & Lifestyle (huh?) is 2.5% to make it to $25,000/yr, even though shows up as nothing in almost every other stat. If I'm really lucky, maybe I get a 1% app, get bought by a big company for the organs, and immediately ditch the app for my payout and no further support requirements. That's a really bad looking casino. [1] https://www.revenuecat.com/state-of-subscription-apps-2024/ https://www.revenuecat.com/state-of-subscription-apps-2024/
- pxeger1 3y ago
  Here’s a direct PDF link: https://www.revenuecat.com/pdf/state-of-subscription-apps-2024.pdf https://www.revenuecat.com/pdf/state-of-subscription-apps-20...
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
lencastre 3y ago
What are the actual economics of this, after platform tax and… govt tax? This barely supports a one-man operation or?
mdrzn 3y ago
"Only 17.2% of apps will reach $1,000 in monthly subscriptions, but those that do will grow more easily. About 59% of apps that reach $1,000 in monthly revenue reach $2,500, and 60% of those will reach $5,000." Not bad at all! I would have guessed way lower, but apparently with just a few apps there's a good chance to make $1000 a month.

31 points by AlgoRitmo 3y ago

onion2k 3y ago

That's far higher than I'd have expected.

rhelz 3y ago
IKR? I only have to make 100 apps and I'll have $30k a month income....
- nadermx 3y ago
  Seems about right
- ametrau 3y ago
  This is sarcasm yeah?
  - rhelz 3y ago
    That depends on how well my apps sell....

dsq 3y ago

The article states this is for both Google and Apple, but it's probably much lower for Android.

throwaway-blaze 3y ago
70+% of revenue for subscription apps comes from the Apple side, at least in western markets.

suddenclarity 3y ago

* of mobile apps with subscriptions

jamil7 3y ago
I think that goes without saying, it's virtually impossible to make a living with a paid up front app now.

Rallen89 3y ago

Is there a reason for the categorisation of the EMEA[0] region? seems too broad to make actionable conclusions, I'd assume the LTV of a western European would be different then someone in South Sudan. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe,_the_Middle_East_and_Africa https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe,_the_Middle_East_and_...

dude187 3y ago
I assume time zone. It's very useful in dividing follow the sun team coverage
- Rallen89 3y ago
  just seems like a waste to lose both developing markets and an already developed high income market to averaging a huge region of different income levels

araes 3y ago

Although the Apple Insider article notes that you have to provide an email, the full article [1] actually has quite a bit of additional info. Some pretty interesting, and rather sobering. Gaming is such dice throw (appropriately). It has the fastest subscriber growth, yet tops out worse than almost every other category, and has horrible 14 day, 60 day, and yearly average money. Only travel, productivity, and shopping (?) are worse. Shopping must not be tracking monetization correctly. Wow, gaming is so bad in almost every category. Offer usage, trial conversions, using any long subscription... If your game fails at launch, you might as well dump it immediately, or re-release some other way. Looking at this kind of data, its no surprise so many parts of the web have turned into one-off demo sites with signups. If it doesn't get immediate traction, move onto the next project. The biggest surprise personally, was how much better health care was than every category at 14 and 60 day earnings. Looking at those charts, why would you make anything other than a health and fitness app in North America with Apple Search Ads. Education in South Korea seems kind of nice, until you see the refund rate of double the next worst. On the submission title topic, even the low end is kind of bad. Not just you won't be a superstar. Most apps never make more than $50/month. Even in the upper 75% you're looking at ~$200/month. So if I spend a month each year making an app (hopefully none ever get feature creep, the last took 3 months), and get some kind of average result, each of my median apps will generate ~$50/month, and I will spend 12 months earning $600/month, or $7000/year, with only 30% yearly retention and dropping retention rates. Plus, all the maintenance and community support for 12 (likely only 4 or less) different apps. While Google and Apple probably publish "official" products for anything really juicy to harvest my users. If I get lucky, and one of my apps makes it into the top 5% category, then I might make $10,000+/yr. About 1.5% seem to make it into the $25,000/yr category. Social & Lifestyle (huh?) is 2.5% to make it to $25,000/yr, even though shows up as nothing in almost every other stat. If I'm really lucky, maybe I get a 1% app, get bought by a big company for the organs, and immediately ditch the app for my payout and no further support requirements. That's a really bad looking casino. [1] https://www.revenuecat.com/state-of-subscription-apps-2024/ https://www.revenuecat.com/state-of-subscription-apps-2024/

pxeger1 3y ago
Here’s a direct PDF link: https://www.revenuecat.com/pdf/state-of-subscription-apps-2024.pdf https://www.revenuecat.com/pdf/state-of-subscription-apps-20...

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

lencastre 3y ago

What are the actual economics of this, after platform tax and… govt tax? This barely supports a one-man operation or?

mdrzn 3y ago

"Only 17.2% of apps will reach $1,000 in monthly subscriptions, but those that do will grow more easily. About 59% of apps that reach $1,000 in monthly revenue reach $2,500, and 60% of those will reach $5,000." Not bad at all! I would have guessed way lower, but apparently with just a few apps there's a good chance to make $1000 a month.