Apple on Tuesday announced new figures associated to its App Retailer’s skill to guard app builders and shoppers from fraud. The corporate stated it has prevented greater than $9 billion in fraudulent transactions over the previous 5 years. In 2024, Apple stopped $2 billion in fraudulent transactions and blocked almost 2 million dangerous app submissions from being printed.
The discharge of those metrics, within the days earlier than Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Convention (WWDC 2025), aren’t simply meant to spotlight the advantages of promoting software program on the App Retailer. Additionally they function a stark reminder of what builders will face in the event that they attempt to go it alone on cell funds.
After Fortnite maker Epic Video games successfully prevailed in a high-stakes authorized battle with Apple over App Retailer antitrust points final month, Apple was compelled to provide U.S. app builders the power to hyperlink to different fee strategies inside their apps, the place Apple couldn’t take a fee.
Although bigger apps like Fortnite, Spotify and Amazon Kindle had been fast to make the most of the brand new performance, smaller app builders should be on the fence as as to whether it makes monetary sense for them to course of their very own funds because of the dangers of fraud, chargebacks, refunds, and different points that Apple’s App Retailer handles in trade for a 15%-30% fee on in-app purchases.
Demonstrating the dimensions of its operation, Apple stated it prevented over $2 billion in fraudulent transactions in 2024 alone throughout its App Retailer, which is dwell in 175 areas globally and sees a mean of greater than 813 million guests per week.
The iPhone maker additionally reminded builders that transaction fraud isn’t the one sort of threat that Apple protects towards, noting that unhealthy actors attempt to exploit customers in different methods, like stealing private information, creating fraudulent accounts, and pirating apps, amongst different issues.
Apple stated it terminated greater than 146,000 developer accounts in 2024 over fraud issues, and rejected a further 139,000 developer enrollments from unhealthy actors. It additionally rejected over 711 million buyer account creations and deactivated almost 129 million buyer accounts final 12 months. And it blocked over 10,000 illegitimate apps on pirate storefronts, which included malware, pornography apps, playing apps, and pirated variations of builders’ respectable apps.in fraudulent transactions and blocked almost 2 million dangerous app submissions from being printed.
Below the EU’s Digital Markets Act, individuals within the area are actually allowed to entry different app shops that host the sort of apps that Apple’s insurance policies don’t permit, or apps that wish to market themselves to customers exterior Apple’s management for different causes. Apple’s message to builders right here means that these app shops are additionally typically the place the place builders’ personal software program is pirated and resold, placing them in danger.
The corporate additionally famous it stopped almost 4.6 million makes an attempt to put in or launch apps exterior the App Retailer or different authorized third-party marketplaces.
Apple has lengthy used the argument that its App Retailer commissions are about extra than simply processing funds, saying it’s additionally about offering safety, internet hosting, distribution, discovery in addition to blocking fraud.
That’s a compelling case for smaller app builders, together with those that already pay the lowered 15% fee as a part of Apple’s Small Enterprise Program. The truth is, early data from RevenueCat, which supplies builders with subscription infrastructure, signifies that small companies are unlikely to financially profit from switching to their very own fee techniques.
In its announcement, Apple additionally reviewed different facets of its App Retailer enterprise and the way it benefited shoppers and builders, sharing different, extra detailed metrics round App Evaluate, discovery fraud, fee and bank card fraud, and extra.
Mixed, these numbers are designed to remind builders why they need to select the App Retailer in a market the place it’s now now not the one strategy to attain customers or monetize cell apps.