Mobile apps now connect discovery, commerce, digital services and advertising at global scale. The statistics below focus on Apple’s App Store ecosystem, with explicit periods, geographies and definitions so that ecosystem estimates are not mistaken for all mobile apps or unique people.
Key Mobile App Statistics
These highlights cover the most useful measures across scale, activity, spending, regional trends and developers:
- In 2024, the worldwide App Store ecosystem facilitated an estimated $1.3 trillion in billings and sales.
- In 2024, digital goods and services represented an estimated $131 billion in the worldwide App Store ecosystem.
- In 2024, physical goods and services represented an estimated $1.014 trillion in the worldwide App Store ecosystem.
- In 2024, in-app advertising on iOS apps generated an estimated $150 billion worldwide.
- In 2024, the App Store averaged more than 813 million weekly visitors worldwide.
- In 2024, the App Store averaged 839,266,915 weekly app downloads worldwide.
- In 2024, the App Store averaged 1,898,240,007 weekly redownloads worldwide.
- In 2024, automatic app updates averaged 66,022,387,774 per week on the worldwide iPhone and iPad App Store.
- In 2024, 440,896,463 customer accounts searched the App Store in an average week worldwide.
- In 2024, general retail accounted for an estimated $618 billion, or 48%, of the worldwide App Store ecosystem.
- From 2019 to 2024, global food-delivery and pickup sales facilitated by the ecosystem grew 222%.
- From 2019 to 2024, global ride-hailing sales facilitated by the ecosystem grew 334%.
- From 2019 to 2024, Europe’s digital-goods and services activity in the Apple ecosystem grew 209%.
- In 2022, small developers made up more than 90% of App Store developers worldwide.
- From 2020 to 2022, global small-developer revenue grew 71%.
- In 2022, about 40% of small-developer downloads came from users outside the developer’s home country.
Contents
- Global App Store scale and weekly activity
- App downloads, updates and search behavior
- Digital goods, subscriptions and advertising
- Mobile commerce categories and transaction growth
- Regional mobile app trends
- Developer participation, reach and earnings
Global Mobile App Scale and Weekly Activity
Apple’s Global App Store study estimated $1.295 trillion in worldwide ecosystem billings and sales in 2024, compared with $514 billion in 2019. The study reports a 152% increase across that period, but its ecosystem measure includes activity facilitated by apps, not only App Store-processed digital billings.
The 2024 estimate included $131 billion in digital goods and services, $1.014 trillion in physical goods and services, and $150 billion in iOS in-app advertising. Apple reported that more than 90% of the $1.3 trillion facilitated ecosystem had no Apple commission, with treatment varying by transaction type and jurisdiction. (The Global App Store and Its Growth)
The App Store averaged more than 813 million weekly visitors worldwide in 2024. This is an average of weekly visitor accounts, not a count of unique people across the full year.
Apple separately reported an installed base of over 2 billion active devices worldwide in 2022. Active devices should not be read as unique app users. (The Global App Store and Its Growth)
Mobile App Downloads, Updates and Search Behavior
The 2024 App Store Transparency Report records recurring account and action volumes rather than unique people or unique devices. Its weekly measures show how much activity occurs after apps are already installed.
| Weekly worldwide App Store measure | 2024 average | Definition or limitation |
|---|---|---|
| App downloads | 839,266,915 | Not necessarily first-time installs |
| App redownloads | 1,898,240,007 | Subsequent installation by an Apple ID account |
| Automatic updates | 66,022,387,774 | iPhone and iPad; enabled by default according to the report |
| Manual updates | 638,006,162 | Update actions, not unique apps or users |
| Searching customer accounts | 440,896,463 | Accounts, not unique people |
In the same 2024 report, an average of 169,235 apps appeared in the top 10 results of at least 1,000 App Store searches each week. Across the report, 1,377,468 apps appeared in the top 10 results of at least 1,000 searches; these are search-exposure measures, not install or active-user counts. (2024 App Store Transparency Report)
Apple localized its 2024 most-downloaded app and game charts for more than 30 countries and regions. Chart coverage indicates localization, not total global downloads. (The Global App Store and Its Growth)
Digital Goods, Subscriptions and Mobile Advertising Revenue
Digital goods and services represented 10% of the estimated $1.3 trillion worldwide App Store ecosystem in 2024. Global digital-goods and services spending facilitated by the ecosystem increased 109% from 2019 to 2024.
In-app advertising represented 12% of the 2024 worldwide ecosystem, while global iOS in-app advertising revenue increased 131% from 2019 to 2024. The advertising figures cover developer-placed ads in apps and exclude mobile web, search advertising and outside ad-tech revenue. (The Global App Store and Its Growth)
The United States provides a separate 2024 view. Apple’s US ecosystem study estimated $53 billion in digital goods and services activity and $75 billion in in-app advertising, while its physical goods and services estimate was $277 billion.
These US figures are ecosystem estimates rather than Apple’s reported advertising revenue or App Store digital checkout totals. (App Store in the U.S. facilitated $406 billion in developer billings and sales in 2024)
Mobile Commerce Categories and Transaction Growth
The global ecosystem study places app-mediated mobile commerce at the center of the 2024 total. General retail alone accounted for an estimated $618 billion and 48% of the worldwide App Store ecosystem.
| Category | 2024 worldwide estimate | Change from 2019 to 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| General retail | $618 billion; 48% | 162% |
| Travel | $135 billion | 137% |
| Food delivery and pickup | $110 billion | 222% |
| Grocery | $80 billion | 57% |
The same study reported 334% growth in ride-hailing and 241% growth in digital-payment spending from 2019 to 2024. These are facilitated sales or spending estimates, not counts of rides, customers, transactions or users.
The category figures rely partly on third-party estimates, especially for physical goods and services, m-commerce and grocery activity. They should therefore be kept distinct from App Store digital billings. (The Global App Store and Its Growth)
Regional Mobile App Statistics and Trends
From 2019 to 2024, digital-goods and services activity in Apple’s ecosystem increased 141% in the United States, 68% in China and 209% in Europe. Physical-goods and services activity increased 211% in the United States, 132% in China and 190% in Europe.
| Geography | Digital goods and services, 2019–2024 | Physical goods and services, 2019–2024 |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 141% | 211% |
| China | 68% | 132% |
| Europe | 209% | 190% |
Selected category measures show different regional patterns. US digital-payment spending increased 653% from 2019 to 2024; China grocery spending increased 453%; and Europe food-delivery and pickup spending increased 243%.
For selected European countries, 2024 digital-goods and services totals were estimated at $5.4 billion in the UK, $3.6 billion in Germany and $2.1 billion in France. These country figures are not a complete Europe total. (The Global App Store and Its Growth)
Mobile App Developer Participation, Reach and Earnings
Apple’s 2022 developer study defined a small developer as one earning up to $1 million annually and recording fewer than 1 million annual downloads. Under that definition, small developers comprised more than 90% of all App Store developers worldwide.
Global small-developer revenue increased 71% from 2020 to 2022, while US small-developer earnings increased 87%. The study reported that small-developer earnings grew 4.5 times faster than large-developer earnings in that comparison, without stating the exact underlying growth rates here. (Small developers on the App Store grew revenue by 71 percent from 2020-2022)
Several measures describe international reach rather than earnings:
- Nearly 80% of small developers were active on multiple App Store storefronts in 2022.
- About 40% of small-developer downloads came from users outside the developer’s home country in 2022.
- Developers monetizing digital goods and services across multiple storefronts earned from users on more than 40 storefronts on average in 2022.
Among new App Store developers in 2022, 25% came from Europe, 23% from China, 14% from the United States and 4% from Japan. The remaining 35% came from other regions, including South Korea, India and Brazil; these are rounded shares.
About 40% of developers earning more than $1 million in 2022 were either not on the App Store or earned less than $10,000 there five years earlier. Separately, Apple estimated that its US App Store ecosystem supported more than 2.9 million jobs in 2024, including direct employment, US suppliers and manufacturers, and developer jobs rather than app-only employment.
US-based developers’ App Store earnings were 2.5 times their 2019 level in 2024. Here, developer earnings mean monetization revenue net of Apple’s commission. (App Store in the U.S. facilitated $406 billion in developer billings and sales in 2024)