App Store Ecosystem Hits $1.4T as AI App Revenue Grows Fastest

Apple stated that, according to research by economists at the Analysis Group, in 2025 the global App Store ecosystem facilitated over US$1.4 trillion in developer billings and sales, a new high, and the overall scale has nearly tripled since 2019. Here, the "App Store ecosystem" refers not only to paid downloads or in-app purchases, but also includes sales of physical goods and services driven through iOS apps, digital goods and services, and in-app advertising revenue. Therefore, Apple also emphasized that over 90% of the related billings and sales were not subject to any commission paid to Apple, with this portion mostly related to physical goods, services, or non-commissioned transactions. The main components in 2025 included roughly US$1.1 trillion in physical goods and services, driven by demand in groceries, food delivery and pickup, general retail, and travel; roughly US$149 billion in digital goods and services, with momentum from games, enterprise apps, and video streaming; and roughly US$151 billion in in-app advertising revenue. AI was a growth signal specifically highlighted in this report: Apple noted that in 2025, more than 40 of the top 100 apps on the App Store featured consumer-facing AI capabilities, and the billings of these apps grew faster than the other top 100 apps; apps adopting consumer AI features saw revenue grow up to fourfold. Apple also described AI as part of the app experience, such as personalized recommendations in health and fitness apps, AI creative features in image and video editing apps, and productivity tools using cloud AI models to automate complex tasks. For Taiwanese developers and creators, the key point of this piece is not the launch of a single model or new product, but that the commercialization of mobile AI apps has moved from a talking point to platform-level data: if AI features can directly improve the consumer experience, that is already reflected in growth in payments, subscriptions, advertising, or transactions.