More App Publishers Made First $1m In Revenue On The App Store Last Year, Seven Were Dating Apps

The number of publishers on the US App Store who made their first $1m+ in annual revenue last year was double that of Google Play.

This comes from a recent report by Sensor Tower’s Store Intelligence that looks at how publishers are faring on both the App Store and Google Play Store.

Interestingly, the App Store in the US saw 66 publishers reach annual revenues of $1m or over for the first time in 2016, which is almost double that of Google Play (39).

However, Google Play has seen more growth in the number of equivalent publishers on its US store achieving this milestone, compared to Apple.

Google Play had 14 publishers in the US achieve $1m+ in annual revenue for the first time in 2015 and this rose to 39 in 2016, a 2.8x rise over the year.

In comparison, the number of publishers reaching this goal on the App Store had gone up from 34 in 2015 to 66 in 2016.

And of the 66 first-time million-dollar US publishers on the Apple App Store in 2016, seven were dating app publishers, Sensor Tower revealed.

Among the dating brands to reach this milestone were female-focused dating app Bumble, Coffee Meets Bagel and Clover.

However, games publishers made up the largest category of those who reached the $1m+ mark across Google Play and the App Store, amounting to 75% of the total number for Google Play and just 47% for Apple.

On iOS alone, publishers from categories such as social networking, photo and video, lifestyle and utilities all took up over 5% of the total number to reach $1m for the first time.

And on Google Play, social networking, entertainment and games publishers accounted for the same percentage.

Sensor Tower said: “This analysis provides another important measure of Apple’s monetisation leadership in the world’s second largest market for app spending.

“Not only are consumers spending more per device through its platform, but a greater number of up-and-coming publishers are reaping the financial rewards each year.

“As we touched on in our findings, Google Play is showing positive momentum in terms of monetisation, but given its substantially larger user base and download volume compared to its in-app revenue generation, it still has a considerable way to go before it’s on level footing with Apple’s ecosystem in the U.S. and worldwide.”

Find out more here.