Mobile app statistics: what actually earns on the App Store and Google Play
TrendApps Research · updated September 11, 2026 · 59,282 apps
Of 59,282 active apps tracked by TrendApps, 18.3% earn more than $1,000 a month from the App Store and Google Play. The monetization model decides most of it: 47.1% of free apps with IAP clear that bar. Paid apps without IAP clear it 2.4% of the time. Among apps that do earn, the median is $40k a month. The top one percent of apps collects 79.9% of all revenue. Android apps cross the $1,000 line more often, at 21.0%. iOS earners make more, with a median of $70k. Store revenue only; advertising income is not included.
- 18.3%
- of apps earn $1,000+ a month
- $40k
- median monthly revenue among earners
- 79.9%
- of all revenue goes to the top 1%
- $1.43
- median revenue per download
- Earn more than $1k/month10,849 apps
- At or below the $1k floor48,433 apps
Most of what is written about app revenue quotes the same three sources and the same headline: the app economy is worth hundreds of billions, and almost nobody sees any of it. Both are true and neither helps you decide what to build. This page and the reports under it answer narrower questions from one dataset — 59,282 apps that reached a top chart on the US App Store or Google Play, with monthly revenue and download estimates refreshed after every crawl.
Two rules make the numbers honest. Revenue and download estimates are bucketed and floored at $1,000 a month, so instead of averages — which the floor would make meaningless — every population-wide figure is the share of apps above that floor, and medians are computed only among apps that clear it. And the stores only see purchases: paid downloads, IAP and subscriptions. Advertising income never passes through them, so an ad-supported app looks like a zero here even when it pays rent. Every report repeats that caveat because it changes how you should read the free-app rows.
The short version of what the data says: the monetization model matters more than the platform, the category or the star rating; rating count matters far more than rating score; year one is a wall and age after that is flat; and shipping more apps does not raise the odds per app. The reports below carry the charts, the tables and the caveats behind each of those sentences.
Key mobile app statistics at a glance
- 01The top quarter of earning apps clears $200k a month.
- 02The top 10% of earners make $700k a month or more.
- 03914 apps make $1 million or more a month.
- 04Adding IAP to a paid app lifts its earning rate to 10.7%.
- 0543.7% of Android apps pass 1,000 monthly downloads, against 23.3% of iOS apps.
- 06Median revenue per download is $1.43; iOS $2.50, Android $0.70.
- 07Apps with 100k+ ratings earn 53.9% of the time; apps under 100 ratings, 3.6%.
- 08A 4.5★+ rating lifts the earning rate only to 25.5%, from 11.8% below 3.5★.
- 09Apps under a year old earn 9.4% of the time; between one and three years, 21.7%.
- 10After three years the rate is flat: 23.8% at 3–6 years and 20.5% at 6+.
- 11Single-app publishers earn $1k+ 19.4% of the time; publishers with 11+ apps, 9.7% per app.
- 12Dating apps earn most often (60.4%); Entertainment earners are the largest (median $200k).
- 13Games earn $1k+ 40.8% of the time, with a median of $60k among earners.
How Much Do Mobile Apps Make? Revenue Data From Every Tracked App
Of 59,282 active apps tracked by TrendApps, 18.3% earn more than $1,000 a month from the App Store and Google Play. Among the apps that do earn, the median is $40k a month. The top quarter of earners clears $200k a month. The top one percent of all apps collects 79.9% of the revenue in the catalogue. Store revenue only; advertising income is not included, so ad-supported apps show as not earning here.
Free vs Paid Apps: Which Model Actually Makes Money?
Free apps with IAP earn more than $1,000 a month 47.1% of the time. Paid apps without IAP clear the same bar 2.4% of the time. When a free-with-IAP app earns, the median is $50k a month. Among paid apps, no price point does better than 11.7%. Store revenue only; advertising income is not included, so ad-supported apps show as not earning here.
iOS vs Android App Revenue: Which Platform Pays Developers More?
Android apps cross $1,000 a month more often than iOS apps, at 21.0%. iOS apps cross that line 16.4% of the time. iOS apps that earn make more, with a median of $70k a month. The Android median among earners is $30k. Store revenue only; advertising income is not included, so ad-supported apps show as not earning here.
Do App Ratings Affect Revenue? Rating Count vs Rating Score
Apps with more than 100,000 ratings earn more than $1,000 a month 53.9% of the time. Apps with fewer than 100 ratings earn 3.6% of the time. Rating score matters far less: apps rated 4.5 stars or higher earn 25.5% of the time. Apps rated below 3.5 stars earn 11.8% of the time. Store revenue only; advertising income is not included, so ad-supported apps show as not earning here.
Mobile App Revenue by Category: Which Categories Make the Most Money?
Across 33 app categories with at least 200 tracked apps, the share earning more than $1,000 a month ranges from a few percent to 60.4%. Dating apps earn most often. Entertainment apps earn the most when they do, with a median of $200k a month among earners. Games earn more than $1,000 a month 40.8% of the time. Every other category combined earns 16.8% of the time. Store revenue only; advertising income is not included, so ad-supported apps show as not earning here.
How Long Does It Take for an App to Make Money?
Apps under one year old earn more than $1,000 a month 9.4% of the time. Between one and three years old, 21.7% earn. After three years the rate stays flat, at 23.8% for three-to-six-year-old apps. Apps older than six years earn 20.5% of the time — no better than the three-year-olds. Store revenue only; advertising income is not included, so ad-supported apps show as not earning here.
App Revenue per Download: What a Download Is Actually Worth
Among 7,744 apps with both revenue and downloads above the floor, the median app makes $1.43 per download. A quarter of them make less than $0.38 per download. A quarter make more than $4.29. The median iOS app makes 3.6× as much per download as the median Android app. Store revenue only; advertising income is not included, so ad-supported apps show as not earning here.
App revenue by category
Area = apps tracked · colour = share earning $1k+/month (darker = higher)
33 categories have at least 200 tracked apps and their own report. Dating and Social Networking apps earn most often, at 60.4% and 43.7%. At the other end, Events apps earn 3.9% of the time. Earning often and earning big are different questions: Entertainment earners have the highest median at $200k a month.
Games are the largest category with 3,930 apps and one of the highest earning rates, because free-with-IAP is universal there. Store taxonomies differ: 2 categories exist only on the App Store and 10 only on Google Play, and each is labelled on its page. Categories with the same meaning on both stores — Social Networking and Social, Photo & Video and Photography, Utilities and Tools — are merged so a category page spans both platforms.
| Category | Apps | Earn $1k+/mo | Median (earners) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Games | 3,930 | 40.8% | $60k |
| Books & Reference | 3,420 | 18.3% | $40k |
| Utilities | 3,195 | 17.7% | $90k |
| Lifestyle | 3,013 | 15.7% | $70k |
| Entertainment | 2,489 | 22.7% | $200k |
| Travel | 2,459 | 10.2% | $20k |
| Productivity | 2,445 | 18.7% | $100k |
| Education | 2,407 | 21.0% | $80k |
| Finance | 2,383 | 17.5% | $20k |
| Music | 2,360 | 18.9% | $40k |
| Health & Fitness | 2,353 | 21.8% | $100k |
| Sports | 2,347 | 10.9% | $50k |
The twelve largest categories. All 33 categories with their own report →
Questions developers ask
How these numbers are computed
- An app counts as earning when its estimated monthly store revenue is above $1,000. Estimates below that sit at a floor of $1,000, so medians across all apps would be meaningless; every ratio on this page is the share of a segment above that floor.
- Revenue and downloads are estimates in bands ($5k–10k by $1k, $10k–100k by $10k, then by $100k and $1M). Medians among earners are the median band.
- Store revenue only — paid downloads and IAP (in-app purchases, including subscriptions). Advertising income is never included, so ad-supported apps show as not earning.
- Apps enter the catalogue from the US top charts, including Top Paid, so paid apps are over-represented. Ratios by monetization model are unaffected; overall ratios lean slightly paid.
- Delisted apps are excluded; unrated apps are excluded from rating charts. Recomputed after every crawl — last data point 2026-09-11, 59,282 active apps.