How much money can you earn with an app in 2023?
Published by Sumayya Siddique on Feb 24, 2020
It is a known factor that there are billions of dollars that flow into the mobile app industry, which is a good motive to build an app in the coming years. And already startups and businesses have opted in mobile apps to take their business to the next level. Even though, there are some misconceptions about the apps that lead people to invest in mobile apps and end up without any outcomes.
Building an app doesn’t mean that it will generate revenue. So if you are looking to earn money with an app, let’s make sure that you do it right.
Before getting into how much money an app can earn, let’s see the factors that can help you decide what kind of app you should be building to earn money.
What kind of App earns more money?
While Looking ways to build an app that can earn money, a question that popups in most of our minds are what kind of apps can generate good revenue. To understand this, let’s see the revenue generated by some popular apps that come under various categories.
Just as the top-grossing app, Gaming apps are the most revenue-generating apps. According to Pockergamer, Free Fire- a mobile battle royale game has broken through billions of $ within the 2 years. Free Fire is the top-grossing mobile game in India, brazil and more.
Homespace and Pubg mobile are the next following top revenue generated gaming apps.
A question that usually arises with gaming apps is, most of them are free and yet how do they generate revenue? It is the revenue model. Even though the app is free to download the gaming apps have In-app purchases as their revenue model.
98% of the app revenue comes from apps that have adopted In-app purchases as their revenue model.
Most money is earned by apps with these revenue models
Just as discussed above, apps with revenue models as In-app purchases have are one most money earning apps. But that’s not just the revenue model that is best suited for making money.
The subscription model is also well suited for apps that help you earn.
A good example of a subscription model app includes Netflix that lets users stream media online.
If you are interested to learn more about how free apps make money, Here is an article that shows different ways by which free apps make money.
Preceding to building an app. Let me show you which app works the best to generate how much money an app earn, let’s look into some categories of apps and the revenue generated by each of them. As the revenue generated by apps are mostly dependent on the
Apart from the gaming apps, Spotify stands first in the row when looked into to top revenue-generating app. The app has a freemium model for revenue generation which lets the users unlock more features of the app by joining the subscription plan of the app.
With this model, this app has generated over 1.85 billion euros in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Here are the top non-gaming apps and their revenue model.
| App Name | App Category | Revenue Model | Revenue Generated |
|---|---|---|---|
 Spotify | Entertainment | Freemium | $1.80 billion |
 Line | Communication | Mobile Advertising | $285 million |
 Netflix | Entertainment | Subscription | $1.21 billion |
 Tinder | Networking | Freemium | $1.2 billion |
 HBO Now | Entertainment | Subscription | $1673 million |
If haven’t yet come up with an idea on what kind of app that you should be developing, here are some Categories of app that can help you earn more revenue.
- Game Application
- Music Apps
- Entertainment app
- Business App
In order to earn money through the app, it doesn; mean that your app should be a paid one. Here are the ways how a Free app can earn money.
- Freemium Model
- Premium Model
- In-app Purchases
- Sponsorship
Does the app revenue vary with devices and platforms?
As of today, the answer is yes. The app revenue varies with the devices. Even though, we can still monitor a trend that there are new apps for devices such as Home assistants, wearable devices and also for Android TV’s.
Among the wearable devices, the Smartwatches has already gained a lot of popularity with the potential it has. The researcher from Forrester have quoted that smartwatches are predicted to be having a 51% of share among the wearable devices
Just like devices, you need to be wise about choosing a platform in which you are going to develop an app. As the revenue generation in apps is dependent on the two things combined which are the user platforms and market acumen.
In order to come to a decision on which platform to choose for your app, you need to consider the following criteria
- The business model
- Targeted users location
With these, you will get an idea which platform can be more suitable for your app idea.
Choosing the wrong platform can result less revenue generation.
Here, let’s not mix up revenue and Profit.
Taking the Next Step
The mobile application market has always shown substantial growth. In the year 2020 the app store revenue has hiked up to 54 billion dollars and while looking into the previous revenues, we can see it is a steady grow graph. Today’s businesses and startups are already switching their business into apps as the scope it provides are wide. The money that can be earned from the app is dependent on your app idea and the revenue model that you have adapted. From everything above it is clearly understood that gaming and media apps have a promising future in the app industry.
Talk to the app experts who have helped ideas turn into reality!
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