YouTube Creator MKBHD is Trying to Take on a Sleeper Industry
This is a single insight from This Week in Apps - So, Wallpapers?. Check out the full article for more insights.
If you're on the internet, you've probably heard about MKBHD's wallpaper app - Panels. If you haven't, the gist is that a well-known tech reviewer released an app, and the internet did to the app what the creator does to products he reviews on his channel.
Putting all of the controversy aside, because the app isn't that bad, seeing anyone getting into the wallpaper app space in 2024 got me curious - is this a gold mine no one's talking about?
I found all of the apps that have wallpapers in their name using Explorer, and there were a lot more than I expected - 30,667.
The thing is... Most of those apps barely make any money, and by most, I mean only 131 made more than $100 last month after store fees.
We estimate that the average monthly revenue of those 131 apps is $10.3K, which is, again, higher than I expected considering how many there are! The top earner brought in more than $400K, according to our estimates, and together, all 131 earned $1.4M of net revenue in the last month.
That's a lot more than I expected.
The top earner is Zedge, which leads this category by serving wallpapers and ringtones. Our App Intelligence shows that the majority of Zedge's revenue comes from Google Play in the US with other English-speaking countries behind it.
Other than Zedge, there are 18 other wallpaper apps that made more than $10K (after fees) in the last 30 days, including MKBHD's, even though it's only been out for a handful of days. That's a good sign for MKBHD, if he can keep it up.
I'm pretty surprised by how much money there is in wallpapers. Considerably more than I imagined, considering it's 2024. But before you get started coding, wallpaper apps are a fairly crowded market.
I can see why MKBHD got into it, considering his penchant for wallpapers and a massive following on YouTube and X. It may even work for him. But given the lack of excitement about the category and the limited potential for innovation in the field, I wouldn't call this a gold mine.
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All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.
