Apple's App Store Sales Hit $28 Billion

(RTTNews) - Apple Thursday revealed that the total revenue of the App Store topped $28.5 billion in 2016, record-breaking revenue figures for iOS apps.

The app developers collected about $20 billion while Apple received a 30 percent share of about $8.5 billion.

Apple customers spent about $240 million on the App Store on New Year's Day alone, according to the statement, making it the busiest day of the year.

Last year, Apple App Store revenues were over $20 billion, with developers taking more than $14 billion and Apple's earning about $6 billion.

Apple said last year's sales of apps rose 90 percent in China, a place where the tech giant has been facing pressure from authorities to pull out some apps.

Apple had confirmed that Chinese authorities had asked the company to pull out the New York Times app from its App Store in China. According to reports, the Chinese government had started blocking The Times's websites in 2012, after wire published few articles on the wealth of the family of Wen Jiabao, who was then prime minister.