App Store revenue distribution is extremely unbalanced, but independent developers still have the opportunity

App Store revenue distribution is extremely unbalanced, but independent developers still have the opportunity

Recently, Marco Arment, a famous iOS developer, shared the sales of Overcast, with many statistics and charts. Overcast has been quite successful and has been able to stay on top of the "best-selling application rankings" for a long time. Therefore, Charles Perry of Metakite Software roughly estimates the revenue distribution in the App Store based on its situation.

We should have heard of the 80/20 Law of the Pareto rule ). This rule is widely used. One of the most well-known statements is that the distribution of wealth in the population is unbalanced, and 20% of people possess 80% of the social wealth. Can this rule be reflected in the income distribution of App Store? Through data analysis, Charles Perry found that the income distribution imbalance of App Store exceeds expectations.

From this chart, the turning point of the curve is about 870 of the top App Store rankings in the United States. According to the data at that time, App Store has 1.2 million applications, so 99.93% of applications are in the "Long Tail" position. The top 870 applications in the "best-selling application ranking", with a 0.07% share, earned 40% of the store app revenue.

However, even in the long tail, developers can still get a good income. The top 871st in the "best-selling applications" ranking, with a daily revenue of $700 and an annual income of about $0.26 million; the annual revenue of 1908th applications can also exceed $0.1 million. If the number is more than 3175, the developer's income is equivalent to 53891 USD in the middle class. In addition, many developers have more than two applications. If a developer can have more than 6000 applications, it is no problem to support the family.

"There is a lot of money flowing in the ecosystem, and independent developers only need a small part. It seems that even if the revenue curve is so steep and the revenue is very high, the long tail of App Store may still achieve sustained profit. Those who work hard, pay attention to details, and have business acumen still have the opportunity to succeed ." Charles Perry concluded.