While the 2020 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is going on in Las Vegas, Apple announced a never seen growth in its App Store sales. The Cupertino-based company said the customers spent a record $1.42 billion on its App Store during the week between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve -- a 16 per cent increase over the same period in 2018.
Not only did the App Store spending witness strong growth during the holiday week but registered a new rise during the New Year's Day alone. According to Apple, the customers spend $386 million on New Year's Day 2020, which is 20 per cent higher than the last year's sales.
The App Store was launched in 2008 and developers have earned over $155 billion from the Store since then, out of which, a quarter of these earnings came from the past year alone, Apple said. The revenue for the developers came from the individual purchases of various programs, subscriptions to music and video services, and purchases of in-app items.
"We begin the new decade with incredible momentum and gratitude to our customers who have shown such enthusiasm for all of our services," Eddy Cue, Apple's head of internet software and services, said in a statement.
In 2019, Apple introduced a range of new services in a move to focus on products other than the iPhone. These included the video streaming service Apple TV Plus, gaming service Apple Arcade, news service Apple News+, and the Apple Card. While the App Store hit new records for Apple, the company says that its Apple Music and iCloud services also witnessed continued growth.
Top apps on App Store
Apple announced the top apps of 2019 on the App Store under both the free and paid categories. Under the 'free' category, YouTube emerged at the top, followed by Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Messenger. The Facetune app topped the chart under the 'paid' category, followed by HotSchedules and Dark Sky Weather. For games, Mario Kart Tour emerged as the top 'free' game whereas the Minecraft became the top 'paid' game at the App Store in 2019.
