How much do indie apps really make in 2026? Every number, sourced and dated
Median app revenue in 2026, sourced and dated: $72 a month a year after launch, 17.3% reach $1k. Why the figures contradict, store fees, and what it means.
A subscription app earns a median of about $72 a month one year after launch, according to RevenueCat's State of Subscription Apps 2026, released in March 2026. Most other figures on app revenue are averages pulled up by a few winners, or market totals that say nothing about a single app. Here are the numbers that hold up, with source and date, and why they seem to contradict each other.
Key findings:
- Median: about $72 a month one year after launch. The top 10% of apps earn more than $2,574 a month (RevenueCat, March 2026).
- 17.3% of new apps reach $1k in monthly revenue within two years, and 4.6% reach $10k (RevenueCat).
- The top 10% of apps capture 94.5% of revenue in Adapty's sample, and 58% of new apps earn under $1k in their first year (Adapty, March 2026).
- Consumers spent $167B in apps and games in 2025 according to Sensor Tower, or $155.8B according to Appfigures. Both are estimates. Do not add them.
- In our own data, 4,056 of 9,667 complaints are about pricing. Users pay in these niches, and they say exactly what they refuse to pay for.
What a typical app earns
RevenueCat's 2026 report covers more than 115,000 apps and more than $16B in revenue, mostly from 2025. It is the largest public dataset on subscription apps, and its distribution is steep.
| Measure (RevenueCat SOSA 2026) | Value |
|---|---|
| Median monthly revenue, 1 year after launch | about $72 |
| Top 25% of apps, same measure | more than $429 |
| Top 10% of apps, same measure | more than $2,574 |
| New apps reaching $1k monthly revenue within 2 years | 17.3% |
| New apps reaching $10k monthly revenue within 2 years | 4.6% |
| Median year-over-year revenue growth | 5.3% |
| Median prices | $5.99 a week, $10 a month, $34.80 a year |
$72 a month is the middle of the distribution, not a failure case: half of the apps earn less. The apps that cross $1k do it fast: RevenueCat gives a median of 58 days to reach $1k, and 109 days to reach $10k.
How concentrated app revenue is
Adapty's State of In-App Subscriptions 2026 covers more than 16,000 apps and more than $3B in gross revenue in 2025, mostly from the App Store. Its concentration figures are the sharpest available:
- the top 10% of apps capture 94.5% of revenue, up from 92.7% in 2023;
- 58% of new apps earn under $1k in their first year;
- 7.9% reach $100k.
RevenueCat reports monthly revenue at a given age, Adapty a first-year total, so read each with its own definition. Both show the same shape: a few apps make almost all the money.
Market totals: Sensor Tower vs Appfigures
| Source | 2025 consumer spending (iOS + Google Play) | Growth | Games | Non-game apps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sensor Tower, January 2026 | $167B | +10.6% | about $82B | larger than games for the first time |
| Appfigures, via Dataconomy, January 15, 2026 | $155.8B | +21.6% | $72.2B | $82.6B |
Both are model estimates of what consumers paid, before the store's commission, built on different panels. They do not even agree on downloads: 106.9B for Appfigures, nearly 150B for Sensor Tower. Pick one source per sentence and never sum them. They agree on the trend: Sensor Tower's press release of January 21, 2026 puts non-game apps ahead of games for the first time, driven by subscriptions and AI.
A third figure often gets mixed in: Apple's commissioned study, published on Apple Newsroom on June 4, 2026, puts the App Store ecosystem at more than $1.4 trillion in 2025. Only $149B of that is digital goods and services. It is not app revenue in the sense developers mean.
What the stores take
| Store | Standard rate | Small developers and subscriptions |
|---|---|---|
| Apple App Store | 30% | 15% in the Small Business Program (up to $1M in proceeds the prior year); auto-renewable subscriptions drop to 15% after one year of paid service |
| Google Play (markets not yet migrated) | 30% above $1M a year | 15% on the first $1M each year, 15% on auto-renewing subscriptions |
| Google Play (new model) | other transactions: rates vary by install date and program | subscriptions: 10% service fee + 5% billing fee with Google Play Billing |
Google's new structure, described on its Play Console help page, applies from June 30, 2026 in the US, the UK and the EEA, according to Adapty, with other regions following through 2027. For an indie developer under $1M, the store takes about 15% on either platform, before refunds and tax.
Why the numbers contradict each other
Most disagreements come from five differences:
- Sample. RevenueCat and Adapty only see apps that use their SDKs. These skew toward subscription apps, and toward iOS: in RevenueCat's data, iOS accounts for about 77% of new subscription app launches, and in Adapty's, iOS earns about 85% of subscription revenue. Neither is the whole market.
- Median vs average. With 94.5% of revenue in the top 10%, an average is meaningless. Only medians and percentiles describe a typical app.
- Gross vs net. Consumer spending is what users paid. Developer proceeds are what is left after the 15% or 30% commission, refunds and tax. Adapty notes refunds can cost up to 14% of subscription revenue.
- Games included or not. Market totals include games. Vendor benchmarks are mostly non-game subscription apps.
- Date. Revenue figures from 2023 reports describe a different market: weekly plans rose from 43.3% to 55.6% of revenue in Adapty's data in two years. Always check the year of the data, not the year of the article.
What this means for choosing a niche
If the median app earns $72 a month, the first question is not "how do I monetize" but "do users in this niche already pay?". Reviews answer it. Across our three studies we read 8,693 negative reviews and counted 9,667 complaints. 4,056 were about pricing. That is anger from people who were asked to pay, often after paying.
| Study | Reviews collected | Complaints | Pricing complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fitness apps | 7,161 | 2,778 | 1,635 | 59% |
| Habit trackers | 5,448 | 3,998 | 1,984 | 50% |
| Budget apps | 4,972 | 2,891 | 437 | 15% |
In fitness and habit apps, users accept paying. They reject how they are charged. Classifying the recurring complaint groups by motive gives:
- A weekly price seen as too high: 228 complaints, all in fitness. Users compare a weekly plan to a gym membership or to free workouts on YouTube.
- A price too high for what the app does: 137 complaints (63 habit, 47 budget, 27 fitness). Users compare a yearly plan for a simple tracker to free alternatives.
- A paywall before any use: 506 complaints (338 fitness, 110 habit, 58 budget). We covered this pattern in what users say about paywalls before first use.
- Charged after cancelling: 570 complaints (330 habit, 218 fitness, 22 budget), detailed in charged after cancelling an app subscription.
- A one-time or lifetime purchase ignored, revoked or replaced by a subscription: 253 complaints (102 budget, 85 habit, 66 fitness).
£4.99 a week which is £259.48 a year
$60 a year is absolutely insane
It’s not acceptable to sell a product for a fixed price and then years later decide to add on a subscription fee.
A niche with this profile is a better bet than an empty one: demand and willingness to pay are proven, and the incumbents leave an obvious opening. A fair price, a free tier or a real trial, and a cancel button that works. Budget apps show the other case: pricing is only 15% of complaints, bugs lead, so the opening is quality, not price. Our method for finding app ideas in negative reviews explains how to score such a niche, and the full reports rank the ideas for each one.
Sources and method
- External figures: RevenueCat State of Subscription Apps 2026 (released March 12, 2026, mostly 2025 data); Adapty State of In-App Subscriptions 2026 (2025 data, covered by PPC Land on March 14, 2026); Sensor Tower State of Mobile 2026 (January 2026); Appfigures via Dataconomy (January 15, 2026); Apple Newsroom (June 4, 2026); Apple and Google developer documentation for fees. RevenueCat and Adapty describe their own customers only.
- Grumpi figures: three studies of public App Store reviews (17,581 reviews collected, 8,693 negative ones read, 9,667 complaints). Each 1–3★ review is read by an AI model (Claude, by Anthropic), which writes down each distinct complaint. The motive counts above sum the recurring complaint groups we classified by hand; they are not shares of the 9,667 total.
- Limit: reviews over-represent unhappy users. The counts measure how often a problem is raised, not how many users have it.
FAQ
How much does the average app make?
The average is not useful, because the top 10% of apps capture 94.5% of revenue in Adapty's 2026 data. The median subscription app earns about $72 a month one year after launch, according to RevenueCat's 2026 report.
What percentage of apps make $1,000 a month?
17.3% of new subscription apps reach $1k in monthly revenue within two years, and 4.6% reach $10k, according to RevenueCat (March 2026). Adapty reports that 58% of new apps earn under $1k in their whole first year.
Why do app revenue statistics contradict each other?
They use different samples (SDK customers vs market models), different measures (median, average, total), gross or net revenue, with or without games, and data from different years. Compare figures only within one source.
Which app niches are worth building in?
Niches where users already pay and complain about how they are charged. In our data, 59% of fitness app complaints and 50% of habit tracker complaints are about pricing, which points to proven demand and a clear opening for a fairer offer.