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In-app purchasing dominates App Store revenue

Generate 72 per cent of all revenue, 48 per cent from freemium apps

In-app purchases now account for 72 per cent of revenue generated by the App Store, according to analytics firm Distimo.

In a presentation at the Verizon Developer Community Conference in Las Vegas, Distimo's Hendrik Koekkoek gave a presentation highlighting the growing importance of freemium apps.

From a sample of the top 300 apps in each category, the number of free apps has grown by 34 per cent since 2010, with paid apps increasing by 7 per cent.

Only 4 per cent of apps allow in-app purchases, but they now account for 72 per cent of all spending on the App Store - a huge increase from 28 per cent at the same point last year. Of that revenue, 48 per cent comes from free apps, with the remaining 24 per cent coming from paid apps that allow in-app purchasing.

In July, the App Store passed 15 billion downloads. A week later, Apple raised the minimum price of apps on the UK store from £0.59 to £0.69.

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Matthew Handrahan avatar
Matthew Handrahan joined GamesIndustry in 2011, bringing long-form feature-writing experience to the team as well as a deep understanding of the video game development business. He previously spent more than five years at award-winning magazine gamesTM.
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