Since its debut in 2008, the revenue of the iOS App Store, in its division between those coming from games and other types of applications, the leaderboard was always topped by the first. Whether it was by a larger or smaller margin, but in general, users seemed more inclined to pull out their wallets with games than with the rest of the types of apps we’ve been able to find on Apple since day one. iPhone store.

At this point, yes, it’s important to clarify that when we talk about income, of course I don’t just mean the purchase price of the app or game, tIn-app transactions and subscriptions of all kinds are also includedtwo areas that the smartphone video game industry has been able to capitalize on much better, and long before that, the new monetization models that unfortunately (at least in my opinion) are gradually gaining ground in the software world, as in other industries.

Although the app market is very dynamic, trends can be identified over time. In this case, we’ve been seeing app revenue move closer to game revenue for some time now, and according to consulting firm SensorTower, the change was officially confirmed during the second quarter of 2022. the first quarter in which revenue generated by apps surpassed revenue generated by games on the US App Store.

Does this data only apply to the United States of America? At least on first analysis it doesn’t look like that. Although Apple does not provide these types of numbers, and even less are they segregated by local markets, what happens to the App Store is usually quickly transferable to other local app store instancesso we can conclude that the situation in Europe may not be identical, but it is quite similar, with the same market development.

A quick read we could take from this data is that users are increasingly interested in apps, and that might seem like a positive. However, and seeing the trends in the software market that I talked about earlier, the bottom line points in a very different direction, and unfortunately that seems to be the one that really explains it. And that’s it app developers learn from game developers.

Just take a quick look at the apps in the App Store and you’ll see that in-app purchases proliferated like mushrooms in a pine forest after a rainy day. Purchases, which can be microtransactions to unlock features (such as free versions that offer a “pro” upgrade), or subscriptions to use the app for a certain period of time. Cheating and greedy implementation that we’ve seen on PC for a long time.

We are therefore moving towards a pay-per-use model, which is fully justified in some cases, but no more than in others shameful and embarrassing move by some developers. Will it be successful? The problem is, looking at these numbers, at least in the short term it seems.