Apple accumulates a whopping 900 million subscribers across its services
When you think of how Apple became one of the most valuable companies in the world, you most likely think of its hardware. However, Apple's services have become a key revenue driver for the company. Every day, Apple users take advantage of the services to listen to music, download apps, watch shows, and more. In 2022, the services combined drew nearly a billion subscribers.
Smartphones
The App Store is Apple's hub for apps where people can discover, download and update apps. Subscriptions on the App Store have driven more than 900 million paid subscriptions across Apple services, according to Apple. The top paid apps of 2022 included Minecraft, HotSchedules, Procreate Pocket, and Heads Up.
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Apple Music also experienced a big year with new features such as Spatial Audio and Apple Music Sing. Since launching Spatial Audio in 2021, the number of Spatial Audio listeners tripled and monthly Spatial Audio plays grew over 1,000%. Shazam, the song recognition tech that Apple acquired in 2017, celebrated 70 billion all-time Shazams in 2022.
Other services that grew in 2022 included Apple Fitness+, Apple News+, Apple Podcasts, Apple Books, Apple Maps, Apple Pay, Wallet, Apple Cash, and iCloud+. With so many services available, Apple back in 2020 started offering Apple One, a plan that bundles the subscriptions together starting at $16.95 a month.
We should expect Apple to continue to expand its services business in 2023, given its growth so far. In the fourth quarter of 2022, subscriptions made up about 20% of Apple's net sales.