Apple Announces Record App Store Spending Over the Holidays

Apple has announced that App Store customers worldwide set new spending records over the holidays, topping off a record-breaking year for the mobile app store.

App Store spending topped $1.22 billion between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Customers also spent over $322 million on New Year’s Day 2019 alone, setting a new single-day record.

“The App Store had a record-breaking holiday week and New Year's Day. The holiday week was our biggest week ever with more than $1.22 billion spent on apps and games, and New Year’s Day set a new single-day record at more than $322 million,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Thanks to the inspiring work of our talented developers and the support of our incredible customers around the world, the App Store finished off an outstanding 2018 and kicked off 2019 with a bang.”


Apple also announced that Services revenue reached an all-time record in the holiday quarter setting all-time records for App Store, Apple Music, Cloud Services, Apple Pay and the App Store’s search ad business.

Gaming and self-care were the most popular categories of app downloads and subscriptions during the holidays. Globally, multiplayer games including Fortnite and PUBG were among the top downloaded games over the holidays, along with Brawl Stars, Asphalt 9 and Monster Strike. Productivity, Health & Fitness and Education apps are already capturing the attention of customers in the first few days of the year with 1Password, Sweat and Lumosity charting in their respective categories.

Today's release follows the company's surprise announcement yesterday that it is revising down guidance for the holiday quarter largely due to poor iPhone sales in China.

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