Apple reports $1.4 trillion in App Store sales, 90% commission-free
Apple announced that its App Store facilitated over $1.4 trillion in developer billings and sales in 2025, with 90% of transactions being commission-free. This total included $149 billion from digital goods and $151 billion in in-app ad revenue, which can directly affect revenue strategies for streaming apps. Apple also highlighted that 40 of the top 100 apps had consumer-facing AI capabilities, showing stronger billing growth, potentially signaling new AI initiatives at WWDC.
Key Takeaways
- Digital goods and services reached $149 billion in 2025, up from $131 billion in 2024.
- In-app advertising revenue hit $151 billion, reflecting a marginal increase of $1 billion year-over-year.
- Physical goods and services accounted for $1.1 trillion, the vast majority of the ecosystem's footprint.
- Apps with consumer-facing AI features grew significantly faster than the rest of the top 100 leaders.
- Billings in the U.S. and Europe have more than tripled over the last six years.
Why It Matters
The $1.4 trillion figure serves as a strategic defense against global antitrust scrutiny, framing Apple's high-margin commissions as a fraction of the total commerce generated on iOS. For streamers, the flat $151 billion advertising figure suggests a maturing in-app ad market, even as the 14% growth in digital goods indicates resilient consumer spending on subscriptions. The standout growth of AI apps reinforces that performance-driven technical integration is now the primary lever for lifting ARPU. Watch the upcoming WWDC rollout of 'Siri AI' interfaces, as Apple seeks to standardize these high-growth AI capabilities across third-party apps to sustain service revenue momentum.
Additional Context
The timing of Apple’s report precedes a period of intense regulatory and competitive friction. Per Silicon Republic (June 2026), Apple confirmed at its Worldwide Developers Conference that its major 'Siri AI' overhaul will not launch in the European Union this year. The company cited a deadlock with the European Commission over Digital Markets Act (DMA) requirements, which Apple claims would force it to compromise user privacy by granting rival assistants direct access to private data. This exclusion affects approximately 450 million users and prevents EU-based developers from integrating Apple's latest AI tools into their apps.
On the antitrust front, Apple's legal battles continue to impact its monetization strategy. Per the LA Times (June 2025), Apple previously offered to overhaul its App Store terms in the EU to settle complaints about anti-steering policies, following a $580 million fine. Despite these concessions, the European Commission issued a new €500 million penalty in April 2026 for non-compliance regarding third-party interoperability, according to Trefis (June 2026). These regulatory headwinds stand in contrast to the ecosystem's financial health, where global iOS subscription revenue hit $64.8 billion, nearly 3.2 times the volume of Google Play, as reported by SQ Magazine (March 2026).
Internal leadership shifts also signal a transition era for the company. Per PCMag (June 2026), Tim Cook is expected to hand over the CEO role to John Ternus in late 2026. This leadership change coincides with a pivot toward high-value, vertically integrated AI services designed to offset stagnating hardware sales and the potential erosion of App Store commissions by the U.S. Department of Justice's ongoing antitrust lawsuit, which remained in the discovery phase as of June 2026.
Read full article at techcrunch.com
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