China's app revenue now beats the U.S. on iOS.
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China dethrones U.S. as its iOS app revenue hits record $1.7 billion in Q3

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

China has dethroned the U.S. to become the largest market in the world for iOS App Store revenue, earning more than $1.7 billion in the third quarter, according to market researcher App Annie. Games are the lion’s share of that revenue at 75 percent.

The U.S. had been the No. 1 iOS market since 2010. As App Annie predicted in Q1, China’s phenomenal iOS revenue growth rates have driven it to be the No. 1 iOS market by revenue well before year’s end. Not only has this proven true, but China is leading the U.S. by over 15 percent. In Q3 2016, Chinese consumers spent more than five times the amount they spent just two years prior on the iOS App Store.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.