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Apple marks new Services milestones across 2021, including record App Store performance

For Apple, revenue from Services like the App Store and iCloud are as important for the business as selling iPhones and Macs. Today, Apple is providing a status update on services milestones for Apple Pay, TV+, Fitness+, and more.

Apple’s services guru Eddy Cue provided this comment as part of the report:

Apple’s world-class portfolio of services proved essential in 2021, as people worldwide sought new ways to keep entertained, informed, connected, and inspired. With over 745 million paid subscriptions, Apple continues to connect the world’s developers, artists, and storytellers with users across more than a billion devices, delivering powerful tools, content, and experiences that enrich their lives in profound ways every day.

Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Services

App Store

Included in the report are these numbers for the App Store:

  • 600 million people across 175 countries visit the App Store weekly
  • Developers have sold over $260 billion in digital goods and service since 2008
  • App Store digital goods and services set a new record in 2021
  • Apple saw double digit growth in App Store revenue between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve in 2021

Apple also highlights more than 200 ad-free games without in-app purchases in its Arcade+ catalog.

Apple Pay & Wallet

We also receive a progress report for Apple Pay, the contactless payment service on iPhone and Apple Watch.

  • Apple Pay has almost 9,000 bank partners
  • People in almost 60 countries and regions and can set up Apple Pay
  • Colombia, Israel, and Mexico are among nine new markets that gained support in 2021
  • 30 million NFC tickets were used in the Wallet app last year
  • Transit cards work in over 200 cities

Apple TV+

While the company doesn’t provide insight into subscriber numbers or viewing hours, Apple does highlight how well TV+ is performing critically. In its first two years, Apple TV+ has wracked up a surprisingly high number of award nominations, at 736 to date. Award nominations are an honor on their own, and movies and TV shows on the streaming service have taken home 190 wins including Emmy Awards, Critics Choice Awards, and more. Apple also confirms that season three of “The Morning Show” will debut in 2022.

Apple Fitness+

In addition to launching Time to Run workouts on the Apple Watch today, Apple Fitness+ is approaching 2,000 on-demand workout session videos with weekly releases. To date, Fitness+ works with 11 workout types through Apple Watch.

Apple Books

The company shares these numbers for its digital bookstore:

  • Apple Books includes more than 8 million books and audiobooks
  • Over 100 million people per month use the digital bookstore

And while there was that rumor last week that Apple is planning a digital audiobook subscription service, today’s services report includes interesting language on that subject (emphasis mine):

Now, with the all-new Audiobook Store and $9.99 audiobooks collection, listeners can enjoy the world’s most popular and engaging audiobooks subscription-free across all of their Apple devices.

Make of that what you will. Find the complete services report here.

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