---
title: "How Much Do Mobile Apps Make? Revenue Data From Every Tracked App"
description: "Real revenue distribution across tens of thousands of iOS and Android apps: what share earns anything, what earners make, and how much the top 1% takes."
url: https://trendapps.dev/statistics/how-much-do-mobile-apps-make/
markdown: https://trendapps.dev/statistics/how-much-do-mobile-apps-make/index.md
updated: 2026-09-11
apps: 59282
source: TrendApps
license: CC BY 4.0
---

# How Much Do Mobile Apps Make? Revenue Data From Every Tracked App

TrendApps Research · updated 2026-09-11 · 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. 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.

- **18.3%** — of apps earn $1,000+ a month
- **$40k** — median monthly revenue among earners
- **$700k** — top 10% of earners make at least
- **79.9%** — of all revenue goes to the top 1%

## What percentage of apps make money?

48,426 of the 59,282 apps sit at the $1,000-a-month floor or below it, leaving 10,856 with meaningful store revenue. Estimates below $1,000 are reported as $1,000, so "earning" throughout means clearing that line.

The catalogue is drawn from the top charts, so it skews toward apps that got some traction; and ad revenue is invisible, so an ad-supported free app looks like a zero even when it pays rent.

Active apps above and below the $1,000/month floor

| Slice | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Earn more than $1k/month | 10,849 apps |
| At or below the $1k floor | 48,433 apps |

Share earning $1k+/month, by platform

| Item | Value |
| --- | --- |
| iOS | 16.4% |
| Android | 21.0% |

## Median revenue among apps that earn

Once an app clears the floor, the median is $40,000 a month; a quarter of earners make $10k or less and a quarter make $200k or more. The top tenth clears $700k.

This is the number people want when they ask "how much does an app make" — the typical app among the minority that monetizes through the store, not the average app. Percentiles are revenue bands, so a $40k median means the middle earner sits in the $40k band.

Monthly revenue among earning apps: 25th percentile, median, 90th percentile

| Item | 25th percentile | Median | Top |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| All earning apps | $10k | $40k | $700k |
| iOS earners | $20k | $70k | $900k |
| Android earners | $10k | $30k | $400k |

Data table

| Percentile (earning apps) | All | iOS | Android |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 25th | $10,000 | $20,000 | $10,000 |
| 50th (median) | $40,000 | $70,000 | $30,000 |
| 75th | $200,000 | $300,000 | $100,000 |
| 90th | $700,000 | $900,000 | $400,000 |

## The revenue ladder: how many apps at each level

1,860 apps sit between $5,000 and $9,000 a month, the first rung above the floor. 5,216 make between $10,000 and $90,000, the band most solo developers would call a business. 2,866 make six figures a month and 138 make $10 million or more.

Each rung is roughly a third the size of the one below it — no cliff, no plateau. "Can an app make $10k a month" and "can it make $100k" are the same kind of question with answers that differ by a predictable factor.

Apps per monthly revenue band

| Item | Value |
| --- | --- |
| ≤$1k | 48,426 |
| $5–9k | 1,860 |
| $10–90k | 5,216 |
| $100–900k | 2,866 |
| $1–9M | 776 |
| $10M+ | 138 |

Share of each platform's apps per revenue band

| — | iOS | Android |
| --- | --- | --- |
| ≤$1k | 83.6% | 79.0% |
| $5–9k | 2.0% | 4.7% |
| $10–90k | 7.3% | 10.9% |
| $100–900k | 5.5% | 3.9% |
| $1–9M | 1.4% | 1.2% |
| $10M+ | 0.2% | 0.2% |

Data table

| Monthly revenue band | Apps |
| --- | --- |
| $1k or less | 48,426 |
| $5k – $9k | 1,860 |
| $10k – $90k | 5,216 |
| $100k – $900k | 2,866 |
| $1M – $9M | 776 |
| $10M+ | 138 |

## The top 1% of apps

The top 1% of apps by revenue collects 79.9% of every dollar the catalogue earns; the other 99% share the rest.

A power law, like music streams or book sales. The practical reading is not "give up" but "do not benchmark against the top": the apps you can model a business on live in the $10k–$90k band, and there are thousands of them.

Share of all catalogue revenue

| Slice | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Top 1% of apps | 79.9% |
| Other 99% of apps | 20.1% |

Monthly revenue: median vs 90th percentile vs $1M+ club

| Item | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Median earner | $40k |
| Top 10% floor | $700k |
| $1M+ apps | 914 apps |

## How many downloads apps actually get

31.8% of apps get more than 1,000 downloads a month; among those, the median is 60,000 a month and the top tenth passes 800,000.

Downloads and revenue do not move together: many apps in the 100k-downloads band earn nothing from the stores because they monetize with ads, and many under 10k downloads clear $10k a month on subscriptions.

Apps per monthly downloads band

| Item | Value |
| --- | --- |
| ≤1k | 40,433 |
| 1–10k | 2,093 |
| 10–100k | 8,997 |
| 100k–1M | 6,267 |
| 1M+ | 1,492 |

Monthly downloads among apps above 1,000: 25th, median, 90th percentile

| Item | 25th percentile | Median | Top |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| All apps above 1k | 20,000 | 60,000 | 800,000 |
| iOS | 20,000 | 50,000 | 400,000 |
| Android | 20,000 | 80,000 | 1,000,000 |

Data table

| Monthly downloads band | Apps |
| --- | --- |
| 1k or fewer | 40,433 |
| 1k – 10k | 2,093 |
| 10k – 100k | 8,997 |
| 100k – 1M | 6,267 |
| 1M+ | 1,492 |

## What indie and solo developers make

Apps published by a developer with a single app earn more than $1,000 a month 19.4% of the time, with a median of $40k among earners. Apps under a year old earn only 9.4% of the time, so the first year drags the solo number down.

Publisher size is the closest proxy the store data has for "indie", and the result is encouraging: a one-app publisher is not at a disadvantage against studios with a dozen titles.

Share earning $1k+/month, by number of apps the publisher has

| Item | Value |
| --- | --- |
| 1 app | 19.4% · median $40k |
| 2 – 3 apps | 19.6% · median $50k |
| 4 – 10 apps | 17.6% · median $50k |
| 11+ apps | 9.7% · median $20k |

Data table

| Publisher portfolio | Apps | Earn $1k+/mo | Median (earners) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 app | 34,246 | 19.4% | $40k |
| 2 – 3 apps | 11,813 | 19.6% | $50k |
| 4 – 10 apps | 7,590 | 17.6% | $50k |
| 11+ apps | 5,633 | 9.7% | $20k |

## What this means if you're building an app

Set expectations from the earners, not the average: if your app clears the floor, the typical outcome is $40k a month and the top quarter is $200k or more. Only 18.3% of apps get there, in a catalogue already tilted toward apps that reached the charts.

The stores reward one shape of app: free to install, with something worth paying for inside. That is the biggest lever in this dataset — bigger than platform, category or ratings. Read the free-vs-paid report before anything else.

Next step: See which apps are earning right now → — https://trendapps.dev/top-trending-apps/?monetizing_only=true

## Questions developers ask

### How much does the average app make?

Most apps make nothing meaningful from the stores: 81.7% of the 59,282 apps TrendApps tracks sit at or below $1,000 a month. Among the 18.3% that earn more, the median is $40,000 a month. There is no useful "average" — the distribution is a power law.

### What percentage of apps make money?

18.3% of active apps earn more than $1,000 a month from App Store and Google Play sales and IAP. Ad revenue is not counted, so ad-supported apps are under-represented.

### How much do app developers earn?

A developer whose app clears $1,000 a month typically earns $40,000 a month before the store commission, with the top quarter at $200k or more. Single-app publishers earn $1k+ 19.4% of the time, about the same as larger studios.

### How much do successful apps make?

The top 10% of earning apps make $700k a month or more. 914 apps in the catalogue make $1 million or more a month, and the top 1% of all apps collects 79.9% of total revenue.

### Is making an app worth it?

Financially, 18.3% of tracked apps earn more than $1,000 a month and the median earner makes $40k. Free apps with IAP clear the bar far more often than paid apps, and apps rarely earn in their first year. Build for the model that works, and budget a year.

### How much money can an app make in its first year?

Apps under one year old earn more than $1,000 a month only 9.4% of the time; between one and three years old, 21.7% do.

### Where does this data come from?

TrendApps tracks 59,282 active apps across the top free, paid and grossing charts of the US App Store and Google Play, with monthly revenue and download estimates refreshed after every crawl. Estimates are bucketed and floored at $1,000; see the methodology for exclusions.

## Methodology

- 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 every population-wide figure is the share of a segment above that floor; medians are computed only among apps above it.
- 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.

## Related

- [Free vs Paid Apps: Which Model Actually Makes Money?](https://trendapps.dev/statistics/free-vs-paid-apps-revenue/index.md)
- [How Long Does It Take for an App to Make Money?](https://trendapps.dev/statistics/how-long-until-an-app-makes-money/index.md)
- [App Revenue per Download: What a Download Is Actually Worth](https://trendapps.dev/statistics/app-revenue-per-download/index.md)

Source: https://trendapps.dev/statistics/how-much-do-mobile-apps-make/ · Markdown: https://trendapps.dev/statistics/how-much-do-mobile-apps-make/index.md · Methodology: https://trendapps.dev/methodology/