Apple’s Services Now Boast 745 Million Paid Subscribers
Apple’s Services category remains second only to the iPhone when it comes to both revenue and growth, and this time around is jumped by just over 25%, to over $18 billion in revenue.
This was spurred by another surge in subscribers, which are now approaching three-quarters of a billion in paid subscriptions — 160 million more than Apple had at the same time last year.
Since this is the last fiscal quarter of 2021, Apple’s CFO Luca Maestri also shared that Apple’s Services have brought over $68 billion in total revenue for the year, which works out to triple what it was making in services six years ago.
Of course, Apple was a very different company six years ago, when the only mainstream consumer-focused service was Apple Music. Since then, it’s added Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, and even monthly AppleCare+ subscriptions. Plus, it’s tied all those into new and affordable Apple One bundles that combine multiple services and iCloud storage plans to make them even more attractive to subscribers.
To be fair, it’s also worth noting that Apple is a bit opaque about what a “paid subscription” is. While this very obviously doesn’t include free trials, it’s likely encompassing those paying for any of Apple’s Services, from a $0.99 50GB iCloud Storage plan to a $29.95/month Apple One Premier bundle. Still, this is impressive growth for a quarter during which Apple didn’t announce any new services at all.
Concerning the overall revenue, though, it’s important to remember that “Services” encompasses more than just the obvious consumer-facing offerings. This is also where Apple’s 15–30% App Store commissions get slated, as well as its multi-billion dollar Google licensing deal, which is estimated to account for around $10 billion of Apple’s annual services revenue.
App Store commissions also likely accounted for $15–20 billion of last year’s revenue. Nonetheless, that leaves around $35-40 billion made from everything else, from subscriptions to sales of digital media on iTunes and Apple Books.