An analysis of EU and other data on iOS and Android usage finds Apple's App Store has $10.40 of Monthly Revenue Per User compared to $1.40 for Google Play
As I remember it, at least 10 years ago, I began to hear anecdotes from developers who built apps for both iOS and Android about their economics.
Context & Ripple Effects
The comparison extends a long-running divide between platform reach and platform monetization. In 2015, Google Play was reported to have more downloads while the App Store generated more revenue, a pattern captured in the download–revenue mismatch between the stores.
That gap did not prevent overall mobile-app spending from expanding: earlier analysis projected roughly $100M a day in iOS app spending in 2018. The new per-user framing makes the divergence more useful for assessing the value of each platform’s active base.
First-order effects
- Apple’s App Store is shown to produce substantially more monthly revenue per user than Google Play, reinforcing iOS as the higher-monetizing audience for developers and app businesses.
- Google Play’s much lower per-user figure separates Android’s user scale from the revenue yield available from a typical active user.
Second-order effects
- Developers choosing launch priority, marketing spend, or monetization design can place greater weight on iOS revenue potential rather than download volume alone.
- The result reinforces the competitive pressure on Google Play to improve the commercial value of its user base, while Apple can point to app-economy monetization as a platform advantage.
Third-order effects
- If the gap persists, mobile ecosystems may increasingly be valued and managed by revenue per active device rather than installed-base size, with different developer economics across the two platforms.
- A durable monetization divide could further segment app business models: premium and high-spend services may favor iOS, while Android’s scale remains more important for reach.
The trend: Mobile platform competition is shifting from device and download scale toward the revenue yield of each active user.