This Week in Apps - App Store Trouble
This Week in Apps is a short, no-fluff, round-up of interesting things that happened in the mobile industry. Here are our top highlights.
U.S. Revenue Index (vs. 30 days ago)
Insights
1. Meta Finally Joined the AI Race, Taking on ChatGPT and Grok
For AI, 2025 has been anything but dull. So far we've seen Grok, DeepSeek, countless updates from OpenAI, and now, a new competitor: Meta. And I've been waiting for this to happen for quite a while!
I'm not sure what took Zuck so long to get into the race... Meta open sourced Llama, its large language model (aka ChatGPT) back in 2023, but didn't turn it into a consumer app.
Well, last week they fixed this mistake and launched Meta AI.
They did it in a way that's kind of clever. Let's see how and how well it worked out for them.
Last week, Meta launched Meta AI, its answer to ChatGPT, Grok, Claude, and the other consumer AI apps. But while Meta AI is new, the app itself isn't...
See, Meta didn't create a new app but rather respurpose an existing app it already owned and operated. That app was Meta View, the app you need to set up the Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
Weird right? Well, not really when you think about ASO.
Organic success on the App Store is all momentum. Releasing a new app means building momentum from scratch and for App Store Optimization, it means the app won't see a lot of visibility until it gets ratings.
By rebranding an existing app, with existing users, and momentum, and ratings, Meta shortcuts the process and gets to discovery more quickly. This happens a lot more than most think on the App Store.
Now let's talk numbers!
According to Appfigures Intelligence, Meta View had accumulated 2.5M downloads before being renamed. That's a good amount of momentum and a good chunk of users who could likely start using the service right away.
As Meta AI, the app saw 788K downloads in its first five days in the App Store and Google Play, according to our estimates.
I compared downloads in the first five days after launch of all popular competitors to see just how much excitement is left in the market for AI, and the results were pretty positive for Meta. It ranked in the middle of the top five, where ChatGPT led with 2.3M downloads and Claude came in last with 235K downloads.
The US was the major source of downloads across both stores, but downloads came from almost every country we track.
Meta AI gained more popularity on the App Store, which added about twice as many downloads as Google Play in its first few days. Though, I suspect this will change with time.
2. Downloads of Chinese Retailers Temu and SHEIN Dropped 89% in April
The US is in a trade war with China right now and retail apps are not exempt. Temu and SHEIN, two retailers that are focused on extremely low cost items, have seen downloads shrink by more than 80% since March, dipping to new lows the pair has never operated in.
The two were immune to tariffs thanks to the di minimis exemption, which says that orders by individuals worth less than $800 can skip formal customs and don't pay any duty. That's no longer the case, and as soon as that happened downloads dropped almost overnight.
According to Appfigures Intelligence, Temu averaged around 650K downloads/week from the App Store and Google Play in the US in early March. SHEIN was looking at a weekly average of 430K downloads/week.
This is before the exemption was threatened and before tariffs replaced the weather as a conversation starter.
The two have had their downloads roam around that average all the way back to last year.
In April, an executive order ended the exemption as of the beginning of May, and the downloads dropped nearly instantly. Our estimates show that as of last week, Temu's downloads in the US dropped to 176K and SHEIN's to 172K.
That's the lowest the two have ever operated at.
When I saw this drop I immediately thought it had something to do with prices, expecting prices to rise significantly. But that's not the case. A short browsing session showed the same ridiculously low prices I've seen last summer when I was testing the app for the first time.
And it's not that Temu and SHEIN aren't actively engaging their users either. Since reinstalling the app a few days ago I get at least 5 push notifications and text messages every day.
What's going on???
If the prices are still low and the apps are still engaging users, why are downloads down so much?
Ads.
Temu and SHEIN use very large ad campaigns on and off the App Store to get downloads. According to our Apple Ads Intelligence, in the last six months, the two had campaigns that span nearly 10K keywords. Most apps barely graze the hundreds. And as large as they are, they're also heavy in spend.
For example, Temu advertises on the keyword "Instagram" in the US, along with more than 100 other apps. Unlike the others, however, Temu has the highest share of impressions! Same for "roblox", "etsy", "amazon", and even "team", which are very popular (aka expensive).
Data from our Apple Ads Intelligence suggests that Temu turned off Apple ads completely in the US and SHEIN left only a small campaign running focused on keywords related to its name.
3. Downloads Dipped but AI is Still in the Lead! The Most Downloaded Apps in April
April just ended and I dove into the data and ranked the most downloaded apps to see if the shift we observed in March carried into April.
Yes, yes it did.
ChatGPT was the most downloaded app in the world in April. This is the second month the AI king has been in the lead after dethroning Instagram last month.
According to Appfigures Intelligence, ChatGPT made its way into 52M iOS and Android devices. That's 12% more downloads than March and a whopping 38% more than January. It seems that more competition means more downloads.
And that's not all. For the first time, ChatGPT was the most downloaded app in the App Store and on Google Play. What a wild ride for OpenAI.
TikTok came in second with 39M estimated downloads followed by Instagram with a smidge less. I think the pair will take a back seat to ChatGPT for the foreseeable future.
Facebook and WhatsApp round out the top five for April with 31M and 27M estimated downloads, respectively.
Yes, Meta is still in command of mobile having three of the top five most downloaded apps in the world, and Threads a few spots below.
Temu snagged 6th place in April with 25M estimated downloads even though it turned off user acquisition in the US as a response to tariffs. With downloads at the lowest they've ever been as of the end of April I don't expect to see Temu ranking next month.
But here's the thing. According to our estimates, the top 10 most downloaded apps in the world saw a combined total of 300M downloads in April. That's a 13% decrease from March's total, which we see coming out of most apps' total with a few exceptions.
Developers really have to work for downloads these days, but those that do win.
4. ChatGPT Marks a Big Milestone! The Highest Earning Apps in April
AI is the big story of 2025, and we can see that in terms of revenue on the App Store and Google Play in April just like we did with downloads. Except, the numbers are even bigger!
I crunched the numbers and ranked the highest-earning apps in the world in April.
Can you guess who's in the lead?
TikTok! (of course)
According to our App Intelligence, TikTok was the highest-earning mobile app in the world in April, bringing in $329M of net revenue from the App Store and Google Play.
TikTok's revenue dominance has been on display for several years now, and never not by a lot. The gap grew even larger in April as TikTok's net revenue rose above $300M for just the second time ever.
Technically the US is still trying to force Bytedance to sell it, but I don't know if that'll ever happen...
In second place we're used to seeing YouTube, which has been the second place finisher for nearly as long as TikTok has worn the crown. But... not in April.
ChatGPT was the second highest earning app in April for the first time, adding $148M of net revenue to its bottom line, according to our estimates. Net means what OpenAI gets to keep after Apple and Google take their fees.
AI is in high demand and ChatGPT is to AI what Google is to web search (for now). Even though it faces competition from xAI, Meta, and others, it's clear that ChatGPT is in a league of its own, and that's how it managed to jump into 2nd from 6th and grow its revenue by 50% in a single month.
YouTube came in third with $131M of net revenue, according to our estimates. Unlike TikTok and ChatGPT who saw revenue balloon in April, YouTube's net revenue shrunk by more than 23% and back to 2024 levels.
Tinder and Disney+ round out the top five highest earners. Tinder's revenue is up while Disney+'s is down, showing there's no trend of decline, but apps have to really work for it.
According to our estimates, the top 10 highest-earning apps raked in a total of $1.2B of net revenue (after fees) in April, a small but important increase from March of 3.4%. Considering downloads took a nosedive in April, this growth, even if only in the single digits, is a great sign for developers and publishers.
Opinion
5. Should App Developers Switch to Web Payments?
Last week, the judge in the case of Epic vs. Apple found that Apple violated a 2021 ruling by preventing developers from directing users to pay outside of the App Store and by imposing a fee on those purchases. The judge also found that Apple's VP of Finance lied under oath, and issued a new ruling forcing Apple to allow developers to promote and steer users to pay outside of the App Store and disallowed any fees.
Most of you know this but I'm going to sprinkle some data on: Apple's App Store business is massive! In 2024 alone, Apple generated an estimated $28 billion in fees from developers and $10B of that came from the US, according to Appfigures Intelligence. That's $28B not from making apps, not from selling devices, but from enabling developers to sell to their customers.
As of last week, Apple is now required to let developers link out to external payment systems. It sounds like a major win for devs: no more 15/30% cut to Apple, more control, and more freedom. But while the headlines look promising, the reality isn't so simple and might not even be better.
Let's dig into what this change really means for most developers.
Key word here being most. You'll see what I mean soon.
At first glance, the appeal is obvious. If you could keep that 15/30% cut for yourself, why wouldn't you? But Apple doesn't just process payments...
The App Store bundles a lot of invisible infrastructure into that fee. That's going to shift and become the developer's burden. Running your own payment flow takes physical infrastructure, working with merchant services, writing server-side code, securing it all, handling fraud, transaction retries, dunning management, and more.
It's a lot of work most developers would hate. I say this from experience
Third parties like Stripe can help, but it comes at a cost and with risks.
And then there's taxes.
Apple handles sales tax compliance automatically and invisibly. If you're the seller of record now, that becomes your responsibility.
You'll need to determine where you have tax nexus, register in those states, calculate the correct local rates, and file remittances on their schedule. And if you don't there are penalties and they aren't pleasant.
Like infrastructure, there are 3rd parties that can help which you'd have to integrate and maintain, and, come at a cost.
Fraud is another unglamorous concern.
Apple handles it all behind the scenes so you never have to see a chargeback letter. And not only that, if fraud spikes, platforms like Stripe have been known to shut down accounts entirely. That's terrifying if you rely on recurring revenue. So you're not just responsible for preventing fraud to protect your revenue but also for maintaining trust with payment platforms.
And that's all before we even talk about discovery.
Right now, Apple decides which apps get visibility in the App Store. While the algorithm isn't fully transparent, I can tell you revenue doesn't play a role. If there's choice, Apple might start to include it which could penalize apps that don't use its payment system (or rewarding those who do).
The thing is that for companies like Epic and Spotify, discovery isn't critical. They have their own engines that drive downloads. All they use the App Store is for distribution. It's a glorified CDN.
But most developers aren't Epic. Most developers rely on Apple's discovery engine to bring in new users. When I say rely I mean need.
And then you have trust.
Pushing users from an app to a website to pay is disjointed and jarring. And that friction means some will abandon the process. Apple has spent years building trust with consumers and optimizing its purchase flow. Stripe isn't as much of a household name. Most apps aren't either.
Stack the costs of all of the services you'd need to run this + credit card fees + the potential loss from the added friction and you'll end up not very far off from what Apple is charging.
Which is why I think this injunction probably won't have as big of an impact as many feel. It feels extreme, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's overturned or narrowed. But even if it sticks, the reality is that the economics don't support widespread adoption of external payments.
Unless Apples turns this fight ugly, which they might...
But there's still a way for Apple to "win" here. Apple can drop its fee to 12% (under $1M) and 18% for everyone else, but only for developers using in-app purchases exclusively. I don't think that'd go against the injunction and would make the added headache of web payments, for most, not at all appealing.
Remember, for just 12% you'll get payment processing, tax handling, fraud prevention, discovery, and a streamlined conversion process. That's not a high price to pay.
Because here's the hard truth: bypassing Apple sounds good, but for most, it's a trap.
The effort required to replicate what Apple bundles—and the risk of losing visibility and conversions could mean developers end up making less money, not more.
The next few weeks will be critical to the future of the App Store. Let's see how it plays out.
If you're thinking of ditching Apple's payment system, do the math first.
App Intelligence for Everyone!
The insights in this report come right out of our App Intelligence platform, which offers access to download and revenue estimates, installed SDKs, and more! Learn more about the tools or schedule a demo with our team to get started.
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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.
