September is behind us, marking the end of the summer and almost always a drop in revenue "thanks" to back-to-school and back-to-work trends for many.
This September wasn't any different. Let's go through the list:
TikTok was, again, the highest-earning mobile app in the world, even though its after-fee revenue dropped 6% to $315M, according to our App Intelligence. The gap between TikTok's revenue and the next high earner is so wide that I don't expect to see it changing position any time soon, even after its US operations have moved away from ByteDance.
ChatGPT was the second-highest earning app in the world in September, raking in an estimated $174M of net revenue. That's a touch higher than August's haul, showing ChatGPT's resilience to stronger competition and a lukewarm reception to GPT 5.
YouTube, Tinder, and Disney+ round out the top five highest earners in the world. But unlike ChatGPT, all three have seen revenue drop. Considering they're all entertainment-focused, that makes sense, and they'll likely rebound in October.
All except for Disney+, which is having a bunch of problems...
CapCut, TikTok's video editor, inched up a spot in September on slightly higher revenue. That's great considering its target demographic has much less free time now. I've been following CapCut for a while now and its impact on the market continues to make waves. I don't expect that to end any time soon.
One more move that's worth noting is Peacock's. Not really a move as it stayed in 9th place, but unlike rivals Disney+ and HBO Max, Peacock's revenue actually grew in September thanks to good programming - content is still king.
The top 10 highest-earning apps collected $1.3B after fees, according to our App Intelligence, which is fairly similar to August's total. Considering September is usually a down month, this is good news for all developers.
May’s top app charts were mostly stuck, but ChatGPT kept growing in downloads while TikTok kept leading revenue and Google One climbed into the top five.
Apple's WWDC 2026 app song named a tiny slice of the App Store, but the apps behind the lyrics are far bigger, older, and more successful than average.