Streaming, Dating, and Networking? The Highest Earning Apps in the World

Ariel Ariel
8/11/23

This is a single insight from This Week in Apps - Back to School. Check out the full article for more insights.


I crunched the numbers and ranked the highest-earning apps for July, and since many of you have asked, I'm using global revenue and not just US revenue!

That plus a big update to our App Intelligence that expands our country coverage to 100, the most in the industry!

The thing with revenue is, that while the numbers are higher when looking at global revenue vs revenue in the US, the winners are almost the same.

Let's take a look.

TikTok was the highest-earning mobile app (not game) in the world in July. Our estimates show it earned $177M of net revenue worldwide, including China. And that's net, which means what Bytedance gets to keep after Apple and Google take their share.

YouTube followed with $100M in net revenue and Tinder came in 3rd with $85M, according to our estimates.

Streamers Disney+ and Max (formerly HBO Max) round out the top 5 with $80M and $51M, respectively. Important to note that Max earns more than Disney+ in the US but after the rebrand, it's no longer available outside while Disney+ is so overall Disney+ earns more.

Scrolling down the list we continue to see the same types of apps: content and dating. But there's one anomaly.

LinkedIn, 8th on our overall chart, ended July with $32M of net revenue. Its revenue has grown substantially over the last year as the platform continues to expand its creator tools and encourage more content.

LinkedIn isn't paying creators yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if that changes in the future as well, following Twitter's X's latest move to share ad revenue with big creators.

Our App Intelligence shows that together, the top 10 highest-earning apps (not including games) brought in $657M in net revenue from the App Store and Google Play in July.

I need your opinion - should I keep going with global revenue or switch back to US only?

App Intelligence for Everyone!

The insights in this report come right out of our App Intelligence platform, which offers access to download and revenue estimates, installed SDKs, and more! Learn more about the tools or schedule a demo with our team to get started.

Are you a Journalist? You can get access to our app and market intelligence for free through the Appfigures for Journalists program. Contact us for more details.

All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.


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