The move comes amid rising revolt over the 30% fee that it charges developers.
Apple ( (AAPL) – Get Apple Inc. Report) developers brought in $60 billion in revenue in 2021 and $260 billion since the App Store launched in 2008, according to the latest digital performance numbers released by the company on Monday.
The former year has outpaced some past ones by a wide margin — when the tech giant last reported these numbers a year ago, it pegged its total profit at $200 billion. While not specifying the exact amount, Apple also said that spending between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve in 2021 grew in the double digits.
“This significant number sets a new yearly record for App Store developer earnings while representing just a small fraction of the overall commerce the App Store facilitates, serving as one meaningful marker of how the ecosystem continues to create opportunities and drive economic expansion for entrepreneurs around the world,” the company said in a press release.
The total sales that developer contributions through everything from apps to music and streaming services brought to Apple were, like in past years, not released. The company charges either 15% or 30% to developers depending on how much revenue they bring in and how long they’ve been on the App store.
This fee, which many developers have criticized as being too high, pushed India’s main antitrust agency to investigate whether Apple stifles competition by being the main way for developers to earn money online.
In a highly-publicized court case brought forward by Fortnite-maker Epic Games, a California court found that Apple needs to allow developers to provide links to alternative options in the App Store. Even so, Apple is currently able to maintain itself as the only payment option on offer after an appeals court paused proceedings.
In the same release, Apple announced that users had stored 30 million tickets for music events, sports matches and theatre performances, in U.S. and Canada in its Wallet App in 2021 while its Books App now has 100 million monthly users.
