Buoyed by the runway success and hype surrounding Pokémon GO, the App Store has notched up more than $50 billion for developers in what has been a "record-breaker" July for Apple.
On Aug. 3, Apple CEO Tim Cook took to Twitter to share that the App Store had performed exceptionally well. He said the company generated the highest-ever monthly billings, as well as paid out the most money to developers in July compared to any other month since the App Store came into being in 2008. Cook, however, did not disclose any specifics pertaining to the revenue generated.
July was a record-breaker for the @AppStore! Highest-ever monthly billings and money paid to developers.
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) August 3, 2016
The highest-ever billings for the App Store — the magical $50 billion mark — was likely achieved thanks to the release of Pokémon GO in early July.
Even though Cook did not acknowledge the role played by Pokémon GO in this milestone, one can take an educated guess. The enormity of the achievement can be ascertained by the fact that Cook — who rarely waxes eloquent about products in his tweets and sticks to generic updates — posted a second tweet to congratulate the developers.
.@AppStore developers have now earned over $50 billion! Congratulations on your success and such inspired creativity. — Tim Cook (@tim_cook) August 3, 2016
Pokémon GO has gone on to become the most downloaded title in any app release's history on the App Store as reported by Tech Times in July, setting this landmark in the first week of release.
While Apple did not spill the beans on the number of iOS downloads for Pokémon GO, analytical firm Sensor Tower estimates that the AR game for mobiles exceeded 10 million downloads in the launch week itself. The firm projects that the game has been downloaded by Android and iOS users more than 30 million times.
Moreover, according to estimates by Needham — a financial firm — Apple could potentially generate nearly $3 billion in sales in the next two years from Pokémon GO alone. The revenue would be generated by the in-app purchases like eggs, Pokeballs, storage and others even though the app itself is free. Apple gets 30 percent from each in-app purchase to put things into perspective. Do the math and the numbers quickly inflate!
At the company's latest investor call, the Apple CEO had asserted that the company's services alone will grow to the size of a Fortune 100 company by 2017. Judging by the current performance of the App Store, it seems Apple is well on course to meet Cook's estimations.
