The App Store opened 2017 with a massive bang by shattering sales records. New Year’s Day was its single busiest day ever, with $240 million raised from app purchases.
The record caps an incredibly successful 2016 for iOS developers, who earned a whopping $20 billion last year — up over 40 percent from 2015.
Since the App Store first opened its doors in 2008, developers have been paid over $60 billion, Apple says. This is from titles built not only for iOS, but also macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. A third of that figure was paid out over the last 12 months alone.
“2016 was a record-shattering year for the App Store, generating $20 billion for developers, and 2017 is off to a great start with Jan. 1 as the single biggest day ever on the App Store,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing.
“We want to thank our entire developer community for the many innovative apps they have created — which together with our products — help to truly enrich people’s lives.”
The holidays were also a successful period for the App Store, with $3 billion raised during the month of December. Nintendo hit Super Mario Run also made history during this time with 40 million downloads in just four days after hitting iOS.
The game has become so popular that despite only being available for the last two weeks of 2016, it made it into the year’s top 10 downloaded apps worldwide. It was also the most downloaded app on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
The App Store now offers 2.2 million apps in total, Apple says, which is an increase of 20 percent from 2015. Subscription billings have also increased a staggering 74 percent over the past year to $2.7 billion.
Thanks to the App Store’s two charity campaigns last year — Apps for Earth and Games for (RED) — Apple helped raise over $17 million for the World Wildlife Fund and (RED). The money will go towards protecting life on Earth, and fighting against AIDS.