Christmas Day turned out to be one of the biggest moneymaking days ever for Apple and Google as far as app sales go.
SensorTower published its latest report of holiday app sales revealing that overall spending on the App Store and Google Play topped $277 million on Christmas Day. Thanks to consumers who had just been gifted new devices and gift cards, spending rose 11% compared to last year, and games were the biggest winner.

Photo: SensorTower
Christmas Day spending spree
According to SensorTower’s estimates, consumers spent about $250 million on games on Christmas Day. PUBG Mobile brought in the most money with about $8.5 million being spent on in-app purchases. That figure is up from the $1.6 million spent by PUBG Mobile players on Christmas in 2018.
Apple’s App Store took the lion’s share of the spending with about 70% of sales going through its platform. SensorTower estimates Apple brought in $193 million, accounting for about 16% growth. Google Play scooped up $84 million from app revenue, but its year-over-year growth was a meager 2.7%.
While games were the big Christmas Day winner, some non-gaming apps still took home a nice paycheck. Tinder was the highest-grossing app for the day with $2.1 million in global revenue. Consumers spent about 4.8% more on apps this Christmas compared to last year.