Apple App Store Makes Four Times The Revenue of Google Play Store

• According to research published by Morgan Stanley, Google Play Store is making ten times less revenue per device.
• Apple also makes four times more net revenue compared to the Google Play Store.
• Apple experiences $0.44 in revenue for each download made on the App Store compared to the Google Play Store generating $0.10 per download.

According to research conducted by Morgan Stanley, Apple App Store is currently generating more than four times the revenue for each download compared to the Google Play Store. Google’s app store is currently generating $0.10 from each download on an average while Apple is raking in $0.44 from each download by users.

Google Play Store is also not performing well when compared to Apple App Store when it comes to revenue generated per device. Apple manages to outperform Google by over 10 times when it comes to earnings per device. Google generates $0.47 from every device on an average while Apple rakes in a solid $5.08.

Image Courtesy of Morgan Stanley

While the numbers may seem like Android devices are not doing well when it comes to generating revenues, Apple’s pool of devices is much smaller. Apple’s software ecosystem is consistent, and most of its devices have the latest version of iOS, making all of the latest apps compatible with iPhones and iPads. Most Android devices outside of flagships do not receive consistent updates and are ‘outdated,’ making it hard for new or updated apps to run efficiently on them. Apple does have quality on its side with much better optimization across all of its devices.

Image Courtesy of Morgan Stanley

Apple has experienced record growth of more than 119% from app sales and microtransactions from the App Store since 2015. The Play Store has seen only a 14% increase in revenue in the past four years in comparison. The closed source nature of Apple’s ecosystem makes it much more favorable for Apple’s app business while Google does not even come close to Apple’s numbers.

While the numbers and data put out by Morgan Stanley, do not reflect how good or bad either platform is, it is quite fascinating to see the massive gap between Apple and Google when it comes to their app sales and revenue on the respective marketplaces.