Apple’s App Store had a bumper end to 2018 with the US technology firm revealing over $1billion was spent by customers over the festive period.
According to Apple, App Store spending topped $1.22 billion between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Customers also spent over $322 million on New Year’s Day 2019 alone, setting a new single-day record.
“The App Store had a record-breaking holiday week and New Year’s Day,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
“The holiday week was our biggest week ever with more than $1.22 billion spent on apps and games, and New Year’s Day set a new single-day record at more than $322 million.
“Thanks to the inspiring work of our talented developers and the support of our incredible customers around the world, the App Store finished off an outstanding 2018 and kicked off 2019 with a bang.”
Gaming and self-care were the most popular categories of app downloads and subscriptions during the holidays. Globally, multiplayer games including Fortnite and PUBG were among the top downloaded games over the holidays, along with Brawl Stars, Asphalt 9 and Monster Strike.
And Productivity, Health & Fitness and Education apps are already capturing the attention of Apple customers in the first few days of the year with 1Password, Sweat and Luminosity charting in their respective categories.
Apple also announced that the App Store helped drive Services revenue to an all-time record in the holiday quarter. Apple services set new all-time records in multiple categories, including the App Store, Apple Music, Cloud Services, Apple Pay and the App Store’s search ad business.
This latest App Store update comes just hours after Apple announced some more concerning financial news.
The US firm has revealed that it was lowering its forecast to $84 billion in revenue for its fiscal first quarter.
Apple originally forecast revenue of between $89 billion and $93 billion.
Wednesday was the first time that Apple issued a warning on its revenue guidance ahead of releasing quarterly results since the iPhone was launched in 2007.
Speaking about the figures in a letter to investors, Apple CEO Tim Cook, said: “While we anticipated some challenges in key emerging markets, we did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in Greater China.
“In fact, most of our revenue shortfall to our guidance, and over 100 percent of our year-over-year worldwide revenue decline, occurred in Greater China across iPhone, Mac and iPad.”