Apple’s iOS has broken a record in sales of applications on its App Store, as customers spent a whopping $300 million on January 1, 2018.
This year’s New Year’s Day sales marks the highest for the App Store since its launch in 2008. It outstrips last year’s record-breaking figure of $240 million in purchases on January 1, 2017. The strong New Year’s Day performance culminated a successful holiday season, during which customers spent $890 million on apps from December 24-31.
Insights into app spending during the holiday season are indicative of the strength of the iOS platform for the year to come, as many consumers receive smartphone devices and purchase new apps, games, and subscriptions over the holiday period.
According to Business Insider, iOS developers are also reaping the benefits, as Apple paid out $26.5 billion to developers during 2017, a 30 percent year-over-year increase from 2016. Apple has paid iOS app developers over $86 billion since the App Store’s launch. This means that 2017 alone accounted for over 30% of total developer payouts in the nearly 10 years the App Store has existed.