Apps these days bring in billions of dollars but this isn’t true for all kinds of apps. Only a certain kind of app has the mettle to earn its developer some serious cash, others don’t do much at all. It can be increasingly difficult for anyone to put a set estimate on how much an app can generate in a particular year due to the variety of apps available in the market and the disparity of revenue they continue to earn. Take the example of the top 200 apps in the world which generate on average $82,500 per day compared to the top 800 apps that generate $3,500. There are several gaming applications that generate $22,250 per fay whereas entertainment apps exist which generate an average of $3,090 per day. So who is to say an app can make how much money when the attention in users is currently so volatile and ever so changing globally?
The mobile application market has seen a significant amount of growth over the years and experts predict that there is a lot more where this came from. Last year alone, mobile traffic made up 52.2 percent of total website traffic online in USA and 3.6 hours of total time spent by adults online was spent on smartphones, desktop, laptops and other devices to keep up with the digital media. These numbers are impressive which makes it not much of a shocker that several Fortune 500 companies and new entrepreneurs are trying to get in on the action and get into the world of mobile applications in 2019. If you are relatively new to the market or are seeking to enter it with a new mobile application idea, the first question on your mind will most likely be the following: Will this app make me money? You would be lying if you claim this idea has not crossed your mind. Let’s dig deeper into this.
The first thing you need to do is identify which platform you need to target your app’s design around. This can be greatly significant in your earning capabilities from your app due to the impact of different market penetration options and platform popularities.
In the world of app development, developers are on high-demand and are surely compensated quite generously for it. As far as pay goes, the Android world is in the lead by paying developers an average salary of $97.6K annually, and it is all due to its constant and continued market penetration. Apple’s OS is not far behind and earns its developers a hefty sum of $96.6K annually. It is notable that both of these operating systems pay their developers a good amount of money each year in terms of app earnings. However, a majority of this sum is earned by the top developers in the game, leaving not a lot to the developers in the lower band. As a direct result of this, low-band developers have started to recruit top mobile app marketing specialists as an attempt to bridge the earning gap.
We simply cannot deny the fact that apps are major money making machines in these times with the global mobile app revenue expected to rise up to $188.9 billion by the end of the year 2020. That’s a total of 200% increase since the year 2016! Isn’t that insane? Among the top grossing apps of the world, gaming apps prevail the most, since as of April 2018, Epic Games’ game Fortnite made $1.9 million average in daily revenue, Candy Crush made $1.3 million and Pokemon Go generated $800 million in 2018 alone! That’s a massive 35 percent rise from its total revenue generated in the year 2017.
Most mobile game apps are free for everyone to download since most revenue generated is through in-app purchases and in-app ad. In-app purchases generate a staggering amount of $71.3 billion.
Let’s discuss Match Group’s most popular application Tinder, which at the moment has over 50 million registered users. It comes with several in-app purchases and a gold-mode where users can individually search for others in the app to match with them. Bonus features include unlimited swipes and much more.
Sounds expensive for an app that is initially free to download, right? That’s the appeal that subscription apps have for people. This app alone generated $407.4 million in revenue for Match Group and all it does is charge its users $9.99 monthly for a plus subscription and $14.99 monthly for the Gold subscription. This kind of subscription based approach made Tinder one of the top grossing apps globally. So the answer is yes, there is a lot of money in subscription based apps.
We could continue to list on as there are about 200 successful app stories to tell, and more are added to the list every passing day but the point remains the same: the sights of 2019 have so far been golden as far as mobile apps and the revenue they generate are concerned.