Apple's App Store Is Creating Twice as Many Million-Dollar Publishers as Google Play

When it comes to building a successful business, Sensor Tower's Store Intelligence data reveals that more app publishers are achieving an important milestone on Apple's App Store than on Google Play. Based on our analysis of in-app revenue—not inclusive of advertising revenue—nearly double the number of publishers made their first $1 million in annual revenue last year on the U.S. App Store compared to Google Play. In all, 66 publishers met or surpassed this benchmark figure on Apple's store in 2016, which was 1.7 times more than the 39 that managed the same degree of success on Google's platform.

What's more, as you can see in the chart above, the number of publishers who had their first $1 million or greater year on the U.S. App Store in 2016 nearly doubled over 2015, when 34 surpassed that mark in terms of annual U.S. revenue.

While it still trails behind the App Store by this measure, Google Play grew its number of equivalent publishers on its U.S. store considerably more than Apple's platform in 2016, by nearly 2.8 times from 14 in 2015. This is a promising figure for Google, which, when combined with the impressive year-over-year revenue growth we've witnessed from its platform over the past few quarters, signals that developers are enjoying a growing measure of success monetizing on Google Play.

Breakdown by Publisher Category Focus

In addition to studying the million-dollar publisher output of both stores in the U.S. over the past two years, we utilized our data to break down which categories these app makers were focusing on. The results, seen below, paint a stark contrast between the two platforms in terms of where publishers are finding the most success.

Games publishers accounted for the single largest category of first-time million-dollar earners across both platforms, however they were far more prominent on Google Play, where they constituted 75 percent of the total, compared to just 47 percent on the App Store.

Publishers also had their first million-dollar year across a more diverse set of categories on Apple's store. Social Networking, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Photo & Video, and Utilities focused publishers all accounted for more than 5 percent of the total on iOS. Dating app publishers made up seven of the 66 publishers that earned $1 million or more for the first time on the App Store last year, including the likes of Coffee Meets Bagel, Bumble, and Clover. Other standouts that exceeded this the milestone included teen-focused "chat stories" app HOOKED and the fast-growing video sharing app Musical.ly.

On Google Play, only Social Networking and Entertainment publishers accounted for more than 5 percent of the total apart from Games.

Apple Likely to Maintain Monetization Lead

This analysis provides another important measure of Apple's monetization leadership in the world's second largest market for app spending. Not only are consumers spending more per device through its platform, but a greater number of up-and-coming publishers are reaping the financial rewards each year.

As we touched on in our findings, Google Play is showing positive momentum in terms of monetization, but given its substantially larger user base and download volume compared to its in-app revenue generation, it still has a considerable way to go before it's on level footing with Apple's ecosystem in the U.S. and worldwide.