Small developers on the App Store outpace larger counterparts in revenue growth, Analysis Group study shows
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Small developers on the App Store outpace larger counterparts in revenue growth, Analysis Group study shows
According to an independent study by the Analysis Group, small developers on Apple's App Store have seen significant growth and customer reach worldwide, even exceeding the pace of larger developers. The study found that small developers globally, earning up to US$1 million a year and having less than 1 million annual downloads, experienced a 71 per cent revenue growth between 2020 and 2022.
The study, "Small Business Developers and App Creators on the App Store in 2022," revealed that small developers, representing more than 90 per cent of all developers on the App Store, have seen an increase in earnings across all app categories. Notably, earnings from health and fitness, sports, and lifestyle apps more than doubled in the last two years.
The App Store’s global reach, encompassing 175 countries and over 40 languages, and Apple’s installed base of over 2 billion active devices worldwide have facilitated this growth. In 2022, around 80 per cent of small developers operated on multiple storefronts, with about 40 per cent of total app downloads from all small developers coming from users outside the developers' home countries.
Many small developers have scaled up significantly, expanding their reach worldwide. Analysis showed that a sizeable proportion of developers earning more than US$1 million on the App Store in 2022 were previously classified as small developers, with 40 per cent having had less than US$10,000 in earnings five years ago or not being on the App Store at all.
The App Store has also attracted thousands of new developers from across the globe. In 2022, about 25 per cent of these developers came from Europe, followed by China (23 per cent), the U.S. (14 per cent), Japan (4 per cent), and other regions, including South Korea, India, and Brazil (35 per cent).
Apple offers numerous initiatives to support small developers on the App Store, such as the App Store Small Business Program, Apple Entrepreneur Camp, App Accelerators, the App Store Foundations Program, and Apple Developer Academies.
Free tools and frameworks, including software development kits (SDKs) and developer services with more than 250,000 APIs, aid developers in building apps for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS. Initiatives like the Swift Student Challenge, Swift Explorers app development programme, Everyone Can Code, and Swift Playgrounds ensure accessibility and inclusivity in coding technology.
Source: Apple / Analysis Group
