Data study · 744,876 iOS apps · July 9, 2026
The State of iOS App Niches 2026
We ran the numbers on every one of the 744,876 iOS apps we track — one snapshot, taken July 9, 2026 — to answer a single question an indie founder actually cares about: where are the odds of making money least terrible? The short version: the App Store's biggest categories are its worst bets, one category beats every other on both frequency and ceiling, and the gap between the best and worst niche is over 160×.
Every revenue figure below is a labeled estimate generated by GetAppNiche's proprietary market-intelligence model — not an audited number. Data snapshot: July 9, 2026; updated daily. The full per-category table is free as a CSV — delivered by email.
The headline findings
Five things the data says
- Games win on every axis. 15.19% of Games clear an estimated $1,000/month — the best odds of any category — and their top 10% is estimated at $62,421/month, a ceiling no other category comes close to.
- The crowd gathers where the money isn't. The three largest categories by app count — Business (94,970 apps), Education (84,984), and Utilities (74,474) — post some of the worst odds in the store (0.86%, 1.75%, 2.64% clearing est. $1k/mo). Scale of competition and odds of earning are inversely correlated.
- Odds ≠ ceiling. Finance has the 5th-best odds (5.11%) but the lowest top-10% estimate of any leader ($7,500/month) — lots of small earners, no fat tail. Entertainment and Shopping have middling odds but fat tails ($24k+ p90).
- A 160×+ spread. Your category, chosen before you write a line of code, moves your odds of clearing est. $1,000/month from 15.19% (Games) to 0.09% (Sticker packs) — a difference of more than 160×. Among conventional app categories the Games-to-Business spread is still ~18×.
- 81.6% of the store is free — and mostly earns nothing. Free-with-no-IAP apps are 607,881 of the 744,876, and they are the weakest earners. Monetization model is a lever you set on day one.
The master table
Every category, ranked by odds of clearing est. $1,000/month
26 categories with at least 1,000 apps, sorted by the share of apps that clear an estimated $1,000/month. "Median earner" and "p90 earner" are the estimated monthly revenue of the median and top-10% apps among those with any revenue signal — the winners, not the whole field.
| Category | Apps | Any rev. | Clear est. $1k/mo | Median earner | p90 earner | Median ratings of $1k winners |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games | 27,322 | 25.3% | 15.19% | $1,929 | $62,421 | 18,328 |
| Weather | 3,088 | 20.3% | 10.75% | $1,179 | $12,857 | 5,874 |
| Graphics & Design | 5,884 | 14.4% | 7.15% | $964 | $21,279 | 3,318 |
| Photo & Video | 17,325 | 12.9% | 6.11% | $750 | $18,643 | 4,290 |
| Finance | 36,121 | 15.4% | 5.11% | $536 | $7,500 | 5,522 |
| Entertainment | 30,320 | 9.6% | 3.97% | $643 | $24,429 | 4,852 |
| Book | 7,947 | 10.0% | 3.91% | $643 | $16,071 | 4,018 |
| Music | 17,962 | 9.8% | 3.80% | $643 | $13,539 | 3,058 |
| Reference | 14,901 | 8.8% | 3.68% | $643 | $16,071 | 2,875 |
| Navigation | 8,781 | 8.1% | 3.50% | $643 | $12,664 | 3,665 |
| Health & Fitness | 46,336 | 8.7% | 3.39% | $643 | $13,982 | 3,695 |
| Social Networking | 15,768 | 7.2% | 3.27% | $643 | $24,643 | 5,096 |
| News | 10,711 | 8.9% | 3.21% | $643 | $6,954 | 6,650 |
| Medical | 16,704 | 7.0% | 2.74% | $643 | $12,857 | 4,355 |
| Utilities | 74,474 | 6.9% | 2.64% | $643 | $10,929 | 2,677 |
| Lifestyle | 54,702 | 6.5% | 2.48% | $643 | $14,143 | 4,004 |
| Shopping | 29,388 | 6.4% | 2.45% | $536 | $20,743 | 8,820 |
| Travel | 29,411 | 7.0% | 2.44% | $429 | $12,214 | 4,990 |
| Productivity | 47,464 | 5.8% | 2.41% | $643 | $16,071 | 3,824 |
| Sports | 21,743 | 6.1% | 2.11% | $536 | $12,214 | 3,534 |
| Education | 84,984 | 4.9% | 1.75% | $643 | $10,714 | 2,916 |
| Developer Tools | 2,905 | 5.5% | 1.62% | $536 | $6,171 | 995 |
| Magazines & Newspapers | 1,485 | 3.8% | 1.62% | $643 | $6,429 | 1,204 |
| Food & Drink | 39,762 | 5.7% | 1.57% | $214 | $8,893 | 6,950 |
| Business | 94,970 | 2.7% | 0.86% | $429 | $9,718 | 5,916 |
| Stickers | 4,418 | 0.9% | 0.09% | $107 | $643 | 1,295 |
Source: GetAppNiche analysis of 744,876 iOS App Store apps, July 9, 2026 snapshot. Revenue columns are estimates, not audited figures. The last column — median rating count of the apps that clear est. $1k/mo — is a rough proxy for how much review mass a new entrant has to out-run: Games winners sit on a median of 18,328 ratings, Developer Tools winners on just 995.
The counterintuitive part
Big categories, bad odds
Plot app count against earning odds and the line slopes the wrong way. The categories that look like opportunities because they're huge are the ones where the fewest apps make money — the crowd is the warning sign, not the signal.
| Largest categories | Apps | Clear est. $1k/mo |
|---|---|---|
| Business | 94,970 | 0.86% |
| Education | 84,984 | 1.75% |
| Utilities | 74,474 | 2.64% |
| Lifestyle | 54,702 | 2.48% |
| Productivity | 47,464 | 2.41% |
| Games (for contrast) | 27,322 | 15.19% |
A Games app is roughly 18× more likely to clear est. $1,000/month than a Business app, despite Business having 3.5× more apps competing. "Pick a big market" is not, by itself, good advice.
How the store makes money
Monetization split across 744,876 apps
| Model | Apps | Share of store |
|---|---|---|
| Free (no in-app purchases detected) | 607,881 | 81.61% |
| Freemium (free + in-app purchases) | 89,137 | 11.97% |
| Paid (upfront price) | 47,858 | 6.42% |
Source: GetAppNiche, July 9, 2026. Store-wide, an estimated 7.6% of apps show any revenue and 3.10% clear est. $1,000/month; among earners the median is an estimated $643/month and the p90 is $17,357/month. The mean (~$28,947) sits far above the median because a handful of giants drag it up — which is why "average app revenue" headlines mislead. See how much an app actually makes for the amounts side, and free vs paid vs subscription for the model-by-model odds.
Where momentum is
Growth leaders — share of apps still gaining reviews
Earnings say where the money is; review growth hints where it's moving. This is the share of apps with positive 30-day review growth, among categories with enough apps carrying growth data. Games, Weather, and Graphics & Design lead on both money and momentum — Finance shows strong momentum despite its low ceiling.
| Category | Apps growing (30d reviews) |
|---|---|
| Games | 50.4% |
| Weather | 48.0% |
| Graphics & Design | 46.5% |
| Finance | 44.0% |
| Photo & Video | 37.6% |
| Navigation | 34.4% |
| Health & Fitness | 33.8% |
| Music | 33.5% |
| Entertainment | 32.5% |
| Utilities | 32.5% |
| Developer Tools | 32.4% |
| Food & Drink | 32.3% |
Source: GetAppNiche, July 9, 2026; among apps with 30-day review-growth data, categories with ≥200 such apps. Review growth is a public-signal proxy for user momentum, not a revenue guarantee.
Methodology
How these numbers were made
- Universe: 744,876 apps on the Apple App Store that GetAppNiche actively tracks, one snapshot taken July 9, 2026. This is our tracked, deduplicated set — not Apple's full public listing count, which third parties estimate far higher and which includes large volumes of dead or region-locked apps. See how many apps are in the App Store for why the two numbers differ.
- Revenue is estimated, never reported. Apple publishes no per-app revenue. Each figure comes from GetAppNiche's proprietary multi-signal model and is directional. Where we write "clear an estimated $1,000/month" we mean the model's monthly revenue estimate is ≥ $1,000.
- "Earners" = any revenue signal. Median and p90 earner columns are computed only over apps the model assigns a positive revenue estimate, so they describe the winners, not the silent majority (~92% of apps) estimated near $0.
- Categories with under 1,000 apps are omitted from the ranked table for stability but remain in the 744,876 store-wide totals.
- What this is not. GetAppNiche does not track keyword or chart-rank positions and has no DAU/retention usage panel; nothing here is download-panel data. It's a public-signal revenue model, transparent by design.
Want to pressure-test a single app instead of the whole market? The free app revenue checker pulls the estimate for any iOS app for free, and the best low-competition niches for 2026 narrows this table down to specific, beatable sub-niches.
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State of iOS app niches — quick answers
Which app category makes the most money?
Games, on both odds and ceiling. In our analysis of 744,876 iOS apps (snapshot July 9, 2026), 15.19% of Games clear an estimated $1,000/month — the highest of any category — and Games earners have the fattest tail, with a top-10% (p90) estimate of $62,421/month versus $6,954–$24,643 for other large categories. Weather is a distant second on odds (10.75%). Every figure is a labeled estimate generated by GetAppNiche's proprietary model, not an audited number.
What percentage of iOS apps make money?
About 7.6% show any revenue signal at all, and 3.10% clear an estimated $1,000/month, across the 744,876 iOS apps we track (July 9, 2026). Roughly 92% of apps are estimated to make close to $0. The odds swing widely by category — from 15.19% of Games down to 0.09% of Sticker packs.
Which app niches have the best odds for indie developers?
By raw odds of clearing an estimated $1,000/month: Games (15.19%), Weather (10.75%), Graphics & Design (7.15%), Photo & Video (6.11%), and Finance (5.11%) top the list. But odds aren't the whole story — Finance has strong odds yet the lowest ceiling of any leader (p90 just $7,500/month), while Games and Photo & Video pair good odds with fat tails. The biggest categories by app count (Business, Education, Utilities) have some of the worst odds. Full table above.
How are iOS apps monetized in 2026?
Across 744,876 iOS apps, 81.61% are Free with no in-app purchases detected, 11.97% are Freemium (free with in-app purchases), and 6.42% are Paid upfront. The Free majority is also where the money isn't: in our companion analysis, freemium apps clear an estimated $1,000/month at several times the rate of plain free apps.
Are these revenue figures exact?
No. Apple does not publish per-app revenue, so no third party — us included — has exact numbers. Every revenue figure in this study is a labeled estimate generated by GetAppNiche's proprietary multi-signal model, computed across 744,876 iOS apps from our July 9, 2026 snapshot and updated daily. Treat every number as directional.
Can I download the data?
Yes — free. Leave your email in the form at the end of this page and we'll send you the full per-category CSV: app count, share with any revenue, share clearing an estimated $1,000/month, median and p90 earner estimates, and the median rating count of the $1k winners for all 26 categories. Requesting the file also adds you to our Monday niche-report list — unsubscribe anytime.