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The Apple App Store continues to be one of the dominant forces in the mobile application ecosystem, hosting nearly 2 million apps as of January 2025. With 792,626 publishers contributing to this vast marketplace, the iOS app ecosystem represents a growing economy of digital products and services that caters to hundreds of millions of users worldwide.
This article explores the current state of the iOS app market, examining everything from its size and growth patterns to monetization strategies, user engagement metrics, and emerging trends that define the landscape in 2025.
The Apple App Store has grown into one of the biggest digital platforms in the world. It supports nearly 2 million apps across many categories. With thousands of new apps being added each day, it shows that developers are still very active and users are constantly looking for something new.
The Apple App Store currently hosts a total of 1,916,565 apps, highlighting the massive scale and maturity of the iOS ecosystem.
Gaming apps make up 10.92% of all available apps, while non-gaming apps constitute the remaining 89.08%, indicating a strong presence of diverse app categories beyond entertainment.
On average, the App Store sees 1,615 new apps released daily, showcasing a consistent pace of development and innovation.
During the past week alone, 10,935 new apps were published, further underscoring the dynamic nature of the platform.
In the last month, 45,403 new apps were added to the store, pointing to a healthy and active developer ecosystem.
Since its launch in 2008 with only 500 applications, the App Store has experienced exponential growth, reaching nearly 2 million apps in 2025.
Users collectively download over 38 billion apps annually, reflecting a 15% increase compared to 2021, which illustrates the platform’s growing relevance in users’ digital routines.
Most apps are free to download, but they earn money through in-app purchases, ads, or subscriptions. Only a small number of apps charge money up front, and most of those are priced very low. Apple has also made changes to help smaller developers earn more by lowering their commission fees. This makes the App Store a fairer space for new or small app creators.
1,827,336 apps of the total apps on the App Store, or 95.41%, are available for free download, making free apps the overwhelming majority.
Only 87,928 apps, which account for 4.59%, require an upfront purchase, indicating a shift toward alternative revenue streams over direct sales.
The vast majority of paid apps are priced under $1, with approximately 1.8 million apps falling into this low-cost pricing tier.
About 16,000 apps are priced between $1 and $2, showing moderate use of slightly higher pricing strategies.
Just over 3,000 apps are positioned in the premium price range of $9 to $10, indicating a niche market for high-value applications.
The freemium model, where apps are free to download but generate revenue through in-app purchases or subscriptions, has become the dominant monetization strategy among iOS developers.
Apple maintains a standard commission rate of 30% on app revenues but offers a reduced rate of 15% through its App Store Small Business Program for developers earning less than $1 million annually, supporting emerging creators with better revenue-sharing conditions.
Over 900,000 apps use secure payment tools like Apple Pay and StoreKit.
The App Store supports 195 local payment methods and 45 currencies.
iOS users are willing to pay for good digital experiences. Every year, they spend billions on apps—more than twice as much as Android users. Apps like TikTok, YouTube, and Tinder lead in revenue, while top games also bring in big numbers. This shows how apps across different types—social, dating, and gaming—can earn well if they keep users engaged and happy.
In 2025, consumer spending on the Apple App Store reached an impressive $89.3 billion, reflecting a 2.8% increase from the previous year.
The App Store continues to significantly outperform the Google Play Store in terms of monetization, with consumer spending more than double that of Google Play, which recorded approximately $40 billion.
Among non-gaming apps, TikTok leads the charts with $1.9 billion in consumer spending, demonstrating the profitability of social media platforms.
YouTube remains one of the top revenue generators, continuing to capitalize on premium subscriptions and in-app purchases.
Tinder is another top-performing app, exemplifying how dating applications can leverage in-app monetization to drive revenue.
In the gaming sector, Honor of Kings maintains its dominance in the multiplayer battle arena category, continuing to lead in revenue generation.
Genshin Impact continues to perform strongly, using its open-world adventure format to attract paying players.
Candy Crush Saga remains one of the highest-grossing casual games, showcasing the long-term monetization potential of puzzle-based gameplay.
People are spending more time in apps than ever before. From chatting on social media to playing games or watching videos, users spend hours daily on their phones. But keeping users interested is hard—most people stop using an app within a few weeks. This makes a strong start and long-term value very important for developers. The U.S. is still the biggest market, but other countries are growing fast too.
On average, iOS users spend 4.2 hours per day using apps, which marks a 5% increase from the previous year, underscoring the growing centrality of mobile apps in everyday life.
Social networking apps command the most attention, with users spending 1.5 hours per day on average.
Entertainment apps account for 1.2 hours of daily usage, reflecting strong user interest in media and streaming services.
Gaming apps see 1.0 hour of average daily usage, continuing to hold a key position in user engagement.
Productivity apps receive around 0.5 hours of daily attention, supporting users in managing work and personal tasks..
Health and fitness apps see 0.3 hours of use per day, showing growing interest in wellness-related applications.
Retention data reveals that 23.9% of users return to an app the day after installing it, highlighting the importance of strong onboarding experiences.
By day 7, retention drops to 10.7%, indicating the challenge of maintaining engagement beyond initial use.
After 30 days, only 3.7% of users continue to use an app, revealing the steep decline in user retention and the need for ongoing value delivery.
Regionally, the United States remains the leading market for iOS apps, accounting for 63% of all downloads, suggesting untapped potential in emerging international markets.
Certain types of apps always do well—like social media, games, and tools that make life easier. New platforms are also gaining attention, especially when bigger ones face problems. Users are exploring more apps, not just for fun, but also for productivity and everyday use. These trends help developers decide what kind of apps to build next and where user interest is heading.
Social media apps continue to dominate the download charts, with newer platforms like RedNote gaining traction as regulatory scrutiny affects established players such as TikTok
Gaming apps maintain their strong position among the most downloaded, with titles like Candy Crush Saga and Among Us continuing to capture user interest.
Utility and productivity apps also remain highly downloaded, showing that users increasingly value tools that help them manage daily tasks more efficiently.
Successful apps don’t just launch and sit—they’re constantly updated. Developers fix bugs, add new features, and make changes to keep users happy. Regular updates on the iOS system show a sign that both developers and Apple are focused on improving user experience.
Approximately 23% of apps on the App Store are updated weekly, reflecting a high level of developer activity.
A total of 73% of apps receive regular updates, signifying ongoing efforts to improve app performance, fix bugs, and introduce new features.
Monday is the most popular day for publishing app updates, with an average of 4,900 apps being updated on this day.
In contrast, Sunday is the least preferred day for releasing updates, likely due to lower developer activity and user engagement
For gaming apps, Thursday is the favored day for rolling out updates, strategically timed to align with increased weekend gameplay.
Apple also enhances the user experience through regular updates to the App Store itself, such as the recent iOS 18.4 feature that introduced AI-generated review summaries to improve app discoverability.
Each week, 500+ experts check more than 100,000 apps.
In a year, Apple rejected over 1 million apps for having harmful or illegal content.
80 million fake user reviews were removed in 2020.
Over 2.3 million apps were removed because they were outdated or didn’t work with the latest software.
Privacy is always a big deal. Apple pushes apps to be clear about how they use data. Free apps collect more user data than paid ones, usually for advertising or app functions. Still, many apps don’t fully explain their data use. Most data is used for making the app work better, not for ads. Apple’s strict rules aim to give users more control and keep their information safe.
Around 53% of free apps on the App Store report that they collect private user data, raising ongoing concerns about data usage transparency.
Only 13.7% of paid apps report collecting user data, suggesting that monetization through upfront payment may reduce the incentive to harvest user information.
Notably, 86% of paid apps have not declared whether they collect private data, revealing a potential gap in transparency.
Among apps that do collect data, 89% of user-linked data is used to support app functionality, making it the most common reason for data collection.
Analytics is the second-most cited purpose for data usage, used to help developers understand user behavior and improve app design.
Only 17% of identifiable and 10% of non-identifiable user data are used for third-party advertising, showing a limited but still notable focus on ad-based revenue strategies.
100% of apps are checked for known malware (bad software).
In one year, over 215,000 app submissions were rejected for not following privacy rules.
Not everyone upgrades their iPhones right away, but most users are on newer versions of iOS. The latest updates roll out slowly as people wait for stability or because their devices are older. Still, over half of users are on the most current version. This matters for app developers, who need to make sure their apps work smoothly across different iOS versions while focusing on the most-used ones.
iOS 18.3 is currently the most widely adopted version, with a 58.58% market share among users.
iOS 18.1 holds a 6.33% share, indicating moderate adoption of earlier updates within the iOS 18 series.
iOS 17.6 accounts for 5.58% of devices, suggesting that some users are still using the previous major iOS version.
iOS 16.7 maintains a 3.5% share, reflecting continued usage of older iPhones that may not support newer updates.
Both iOS 15.8 and iOS 18.2 have near-equal adoption rates of 2.97% and 2.83%, respectively.
Although iOS 18.4 was only released recently on March 31, 2025, it has yet to surpass iOS 18.3 in market share, as adoption is still progressing.
1.8 million apps are available to download around the world.
The App Store is available in 175 places and supports over 40 languages.
Over 4 billion apps are downloaded every day.
Apple has over 150 expert editors choosing and reviewing apps.
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The iOS app market in 2025 presents a vibrant ecosystem with steady growth, increasing user engagement, and evolving monetization strategies. Free apps with in-app purchase models continue to dominate, while user time spent in apps continues to grow year-over-year.
For developers, several key considerations emerge:
The importance of regular updates and maintenance to retain user interest:
The challenge of improving retention metrics beyond initial downloads :
The ongoing shift toward privacy-conscious data practices :
The opportunity to monetize through in-app purchases rather than upfront costs :
Successful developers will need to focus on delivering exceptional user experiences, thoughtful monetization strategies, and consistent value to stand out in this crowded marketplace. The continued growth in both new apps and user spending shows that the iOS app.
The Tenet Editorial Team brings over 15 years of experience in UI/UX design, product development, branding, and digital growth.
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