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Mobile App Revenue by Category: Which Categories Make the Most Money?

TrendApps Research · updated September 11, 2026 · 59,282 apps

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.

Contents
60.4%
Dating apps earn $1k+ — highest rate
$200k
Entertainment median among earners — highest
15.7%
earning rate in the median category
33
categories with their own report

Two questions: how often, and how much

Each dot is a category (200+ apps). Right = earns more often; up = earns more when it does. Dot size = number of apps.

Dating apps earn more than $1,000 a month 60.4% of the time, yet when one earns the median is $20k. Entertainment apps earn only 22.7% of the time, but an earning one has a median of $200k.

"Most profitable category" hides two questions: the probability an app in the category earns anything, and the size of the prize when it does. The upper-right corner is where you want to be — and where the fewest categories sit.

The whole catalogue at a glance

App categories, coloured by share earning $1k+/month · sized by apps tracked
Size by

Area = apps tracked · colour = share earning $1k+/month (darker = higher)

33 categories have at least 200 tracked apps; the largest, Games, has 3,930 and the median category has 15.7% of its apps earning.

Apple and Google name things differently — Social Networking and Social, Photo & Video and Photography, Utilities and Tools — and those pairs are merged. Each category links to its own page with every chart in this report for that category alone.

Data table — all categories with 200+ apps
CategoryAppsEarn $1k+/moMedian (earners)Platforms
Games3,93040.8%$60kAndroid + iOS
Books & Reference3,42018.3%$40kAndroid + iOS
Utilities3,19517.7%$90kAndroid + iOS
Lifestyle3,01315.7%$70kAndroid + iOS
Entertainment2,48922.7%$200kAndroid + iOS
Travel2,45910.2%$20kAndroid + iOS
Productivity2,44518.7%$100kAndroid + iOS
Education2,40721.0%$80kAndroid + iOS
Finance2,38317.5%$20kAndroid + iOS
Music2,36018.9%$40kAndroid + iOS
Health & Fitness2,35321.8%$100kAndroid + iOS
Sports2,34710.9%$50kiOS
Food & Drink2,2248.5%$10kAndroid + iOS
Medical2,21111.0%$10kAndroid + iOS
Business2,04314.6%$60kAndroid + iOS
Navigation1,93920.1%$20kAndroid + iOS
Weather1,85411.8%$20kAndroid + iOS
Personalization1,8444.6%$10kAndroid
Photo & Video1,76125.8%$80kAndroid + iOS
News1,75319.3%$20kAndroid + iOS
Graphics & Design1,54226.7%$30kAndroid + iOS
Shopping1,46614.5%$10kAndroid + iOS
Social Networking1,33843.7%$80kAndroid + iOS
Developer Tools1,2755.2%$10kiOS
Events8683.9%$10kAndroid
Auto & Vehicles6708.4%$10kAndroid
House & Home6658.4%$10kAndroid
Parenting64511.9%$30kAndroid
Beauty51310.5%$8kAndroid
Communication47431.6%$30kAndroid
Comics4729.7%$30kAndroid
Libraries & Demo41811.2%$10kAndroid
Dating26060.4%$20kAndroid

Categories that earn most often

Share of apps earning $1k+/month, top 10 categories
Share of apps earning $1k+/month, bottom 8 categories

Dating, Social Networking and Games lead on earning rate; Dating apps earn 60.4% of the time against 15.7% for the median category.

The categories at the top sell access to people or progress, and the purchase is part of the product. The ones at the bottom — travel, weather, news — sell information a free alternative one tap away also sells.

Categories with the biggest earners

Median monthly revenue among earning apps, top 10 categories

Among apps that earn, Entertainment has the highest median at $200k a month, followed by Health & Fitness and Productivity. At the other end, an earning Beauty app has a median of $8k.

This list rewards large audiences and subscription pricing. Dating earns often but modestly because most dating apps are regional. When you read "profitable category", check which list the claim comes from.

Games vs apps

Share of apps earning $1k+/month
Games vs everything else in the catalogue
  • Games3,930 · 6.7%
  • Other categories55,106 · 93.3%

Games earn more than $1,000 a month 40.8% of the time against 16.8% for apps outside games, with a median of $60k among earning games.

Games lead because free-with-IAP is universal there. They are also the most crowded and most expensive category to acquire users in; a high earning rate is not the same as an easy category.

Low-competition categories that still earn

Categories under 1,000 tracked apps, by share earning $1k+/month

Among categories with fewer than 1,000 tracked apps, Dating has the highest earning rate at 60.4%, followed by Communication at 31.6%.

A few hundred charting apps and a high earning rate is the closest thing store data offers to an open niche: proven demand, a small field. The top-trending pages show who is winning each one and with how many ratings.

What this means if you're building an app

Pick the category by the question you are asking: highest chance of clearing $1,000 a month, go where apps earn often. Largest outcome, go where earners are large — Entertainment earners have a median of $200k.

Do not pick Games because it tops the chart; a utility, health or photo app with the same free-with-IAP model gets most of the earning rate at a fraction of the acquisition cost. Use the low-competition list as a shortlist and open each category page.

Explore every category with live data →

Questions developers ask

It depends on the question. Dating apps earn more than $1,000 a month most often (60.4%). Entertainment apps earn the most when they do, with a median of $200k a month among earners.

Free apps with IAP or subscriptions in a category where users already pay: social, dating and games earn most often; entertainment, utilities and photo & video earn the most per app. The median category has only 15.7% of its apps earning, so the model matters more than the category.

Games earn $1k+ a month 40.8% of the time, against 16.8% for apps outside games, and the median earning game makes $60k. Games are also the most competitive and most expensive category to acquire users in.

Among categories with fewer than 1,000 tracked apps, Dating (60.4% earning) and Communication (31.6%) combine a small field with a high earning rate. Each category page shows the rating counts of the apps currently winning, which is the practical measure of competition.

Each category page shows the iOS-only figures. Across the catalogue, entertainment, utilities and photo & video have the highest medians among earning apps. The overall iOS earning rate is 16.4%.

Android apps clear $1,000 a month 21.0% of the time overall. Social, dating and games lead on Android as on iOS; Android-only categories such as Personalization and Tools appear with their own figures on the category pages.

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.

Full methodology →

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