YouTube's Mountain of Money

YouTube hasn't dropped out of the top 5 grossing apps in the U.S. App Store even once this year. Or last year. Or the year before that. Not once!

Since 2018, our app intelligence shows that YouTube's net revenue from the U.S. App Store alone grew 7x, rising from $7.5M in January of 2018 to $57M of net revenue in July. Again, this is only in the U.S. and only from its iOS apps.

How? Easy, YouTube's massive audience and focus on conversion.

If you're using YouTube on your mobile device, you know they show you the upsell popup at just the right time. And looking at its pricing, it feels pretty fair.

I talk about video streaming often and rarely include YouTube because it doesn't feel like a competitor to Disney+ or HBO Max, but with mobile revenue beating both consistently and a growing catalog that includes more than just cat videos, I don't see any reason why YouTube won't be getting into original content soon. And when they do, it'll be a very interesting move to watch.

Weekly News & Insights to Help Your App Win

Join 45,000+ developers, marketers, investors, and entrepreneurs who get smarter every week.


Related Resources

Insights
Music + Widgets = Downloads

You know what I haven't seen in a while on the App Store? A widget making it to the top of the charts. Scrolling throug...

Insights
TikTok's Other Other App, Lemon8, Double!

Last week I looked at TikTok's other app - Capcut - as the talk of TikTok getting banned in the US intensify and CapCut ...