Apple users spent US$1.8bil on apps in last week of 2020

The App Store is one of the biggest revenue drivers for Apple’s services segment, but has been criticised by some regulators and developers over the past year for the percentage it takes from app makers. — Dreamstime/TNS

Apple Inc said consumers spent US$1.8bil (RM7.21bil) on the App Store during the last week of 2020, an increase from US$1.42bil (RM5.69bil) in the same period a year earlier with people relying on digital services more than ever to stay connected to work, school and family.

The Cupertino, California-based technology giant said that most of the spending between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve went to games. New Year’s Day set a single-day spending record of US$540mil (RM2.16bil) on the App Store, up from US$386mil (RM1.54bil) on that day in 2020. Some of the most downloaded apps in 2020 were Zoom and Disney+, Apple said. The company has now paid out a total of US$200bil (RM802.10bil) to developers, up from US$155bil (RM621.62bil) a year ago.