Eddy Cue says 2025 was a “record-breaking year” for Apple services: December was a monthly TV engagement record, the App Store has 850M+ weekly users, and more
The Apple services executive released a note saying that Apple TV set new monthly engagement records, while Apple Music has hit subscriber records.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple’s services expansion has been marked by successive revenue records: Services reached $21.2B in a 2023 quarter with more than 1B paid subscriptions, then rose to a $23.1B quarterly record alongside a 2.2B-device installed base. The latest update adds usage milestones across the App Store, Apple TV and Apple Music to that financial trajectory.
The story matters because it pairs a very large App Store weekly audience with record TV engagement and music subscriptions, suggesting Apple’s services portfolio is gaining attention across more than one product category rather than relying on a single service.
First-order effects
- Apple can point to record December Apple TV engagement and record Apple Music subscriptions as evidence of stronger current demand for its entertainment services.
- The App Store’s more than 850M weekly users expands the immediate audience available to developers and to Apple’s platform services.
Second-order effects
- Developers and media partners gain a larger potential distribution channel, while Apple has more scope to connect app discovery, subscriptions and entertainment offerings within its ecosystem.
- Streaming and music rivals face a more entrenched bundled-platform competitor; the reported engagement and subscriber records raise the importance of retaining users who already use Apple devices and services.
Third-order effects
- If service engagement continues to rise alongside Apple’s device base, the company’s economics may increasingly depend on the Services segment’s repeated quarterly revenue records and revenue per active device rather than hardware sales alone.
- The pattern points toward platform ecosystems competing on the breadth and frequency of recurring services—apps, video and music—not merely on individual device features.
The trend: Apple is turning its installed device base into a broader recurring-services distribution and monetization engine.