Remaining 32-bit iOS Apps Represent Less Than 1% of App Store Spending

The potential revenue Apple stands to lose from eliminating 32-bit app support in iOS 11, expected to launch next week, will amount to less than 1 percent of its portion of quarterly App Store revenue, according to Sensor Tower research. Based on an analysis of our Store Intelligence data, we have estimated that these older apps, which will cease to function in the upcoming release, accounted for approximately $37.5 million in worldwide gross revenue last quarter, of which Apple's cut—about $11.3 million—made up a mere 0.41 percent of its total revenue from in-app purchases and paid apps on iPhone and iPad.

As the chart above illustrates, the share of revenue generated by the more than 180,000 remaining 32-bit apps on the App Store worldwide has been steadily decreasing since Apple required all new app updates to be 64-bit in June of 2015. In the third quarter of that year, we estimate that they represented about 1.13 percent of worldwide gross App Store revenue, or approximately $53.5 million. By 3Q16, that amount declined to about $43.6 million, or approximately 0.61 percent of all revenue.

The two highest-grossing 32-bit-only apps, The Amazing Spider-Man (Gameloft) and Trigger Fist (Lake Effect), netted approximately $45,000 and $36,000 worldwide during the month of August, respectively.

Apple has no doubt been tracking the revenue contribution of these apps—which at this point haven't been updated in more than two years—and determined that the benefits of a 64-bit-only iOS 11 (including a snappier overall user experience) are worth the sacrifice. Of course, it's still possible that we will see a push by some of these apps' developers to bring them into iOS 11 compliance before being delisted. In fact, as we recently reported, 64-bit iOS app updates have skyrocketed by nearly 230 percent in the past six months.