How Much Do App Developers Make?

This chart has all the data...see the original here.

If you guessed "Not a lot, on average," you're right. While Apple in their latest earnings call mentioned that they've paid out over $2 billion to developers, when you analyze the numbers it's less impressive. An interesting analysis by 148apps.biz breaks down the numbers, and they are instructive. With approximately 370,000 apps on iOS from 78,000 publishers, that $2 billion gets spread pretty thin. The average app costs $2.52, which isn't a whole lot.

The numbers work out to about $8500 per publisher per year, which isn't a whole lot. Of course, that's averaging; the publisher with big hits make hundreds of thousands or millions, and many just make a few hundred dollars.

Games are more lucrative than non-game apps, and that's a good thing for game developers. But it underscores just how difficult it is to make money with an iOS game... or any smartphone game, for that matter. Developers need to be aware of the facts before charging into an expensive development process.