Apple users spent $1.1bn on apps over holiday season

There really is no stopping Apple. The Cupertino-based technology giant on Wednesday announced that its customers had spent US$1.1-billion on apps and in-app purchases, setting back-to-back weekly records for traffic and purchases.

It also recorded the biggest day in App Store history on 1 January when customers spent over US$144 million, breaking the previous single-day record set just a week earlier on Christmas Day.

“The App Store had a holiday season for the record books. We are excited that our customers downloaded and enjoyed so many incredible apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV, spending over US$20-billion on the App Store last year alone,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “We’re grateful to all the developers who have created the most innovative and exciting apps in the world for our customers. We can’t wait for what’s to come in 2016.”

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Apple also announced that it has now paid out nearly US$40-billion for developers since 2008, with over one-third generated in 2015. While that is impressive, it’s worth noting that even reasonably successful apps sometimes struggle to make back the money spent on developing them.

Still, those payouts mean the world’s biggest company feels comfortable enough to make the claim that it’s responsible for creating and supporting 1.9-million jobs in the US. Nearly three-quarters of those jobs, it says, are attributable to the “community of app creators, software engineers and entrepreneurs building apps for iOS, as well as non-IT jobs supported directly and indirectly through the app economy.”

Apple has previously reported that the iOS app economy has created 1.2 million jobs in Europe and 1.4 million jobs in China.

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According to Apple Gaming, Social Networking and Entertainment were among the year’s most popular App Store categories across Apple products. Games and subscription apps dominated this year’s top grossing titles with the likes of Clash of Clans, Monster Strike, Game of War – Fire Age and Fantasy Westward Journey, as well as Netflix, Hulu and Match all performing well.

While Apple didn’t reveal how any download numbers around the Apple Watch and TV, it did reveal the most popular apps for both devices.

Since its launch in October, the new Apple TV’s most popular apps include Rayman Adventures, Beat Sports and HBO NOW. Chart-topping apps for Apple Watch owners include fitness apps Nike+ Running and Lifesum, and iTranslate and Citymapper in the Travel category.