Apple’s App Store net revenue dropped 0.6% year-on-year as of mid-August 2026 — the first decline in four years — according to Morgan Stanley’s analysis of monthly App Store data. The bigger number is underneath it: US App Store commission revenue is down 18% since the start of the year. The cause is a court injunction, in force since April 2025, that forces Apple to let developers point users to external payment pages without paying Apple a cut on those transactions. Revenue is also softening in Brazil and Japan, both of which introduced similar steering rules this year, alongside weaker demand for games and currency effects.
For four years, “put it on the App Store and pay the 30%” was simply how in-app monetisation worked. That assumption no longer holds. Developers can now legally build a payment flow that never touches Apple’s checkout at all — provided they’re willing to build and maintain that flow themselves, handle the compliance and UX tradeoffs, and accept that Apple still gates how the link to it can be presented in-app.
Why this matters for anyone commissioning an app
This isn’t a story about Apple’s balance sheet — it’s a story about a decision that used to be an afterthought becoming a genuine build-time choice. Whether to route payments through Apple’s IAP, an external checkout, or a hybrid of both changes your margins, your app’s approval risk, and how much backend work is needed before launch. Get it wrong and you’re either giving away 30% you didn’t need to, or you’re rebuilding your payment flow mid-flight once the revenue math becomes obvious.
So what
If you’re planning a subscription or in-app-purchase product for iOS, monetisation architecture belongs in the initial technical scope, not a post-launch retrofit. We build this decision into the plan from day one — see our iOS & Android services or get in touch to talk through what payment routing makes sense for your product.