Apple starts year with a bang as App Store sales hit record

Apple on Friday announced that a record number of customers made purchases or downloaded apps on its App Store, spending over $890 million from Christmas eve to New Year's Day. 

Sales hit $300 million on January 1 alone, the tech giant said in a Press release. 

"We are thrilled with the reaction to the new App Store and to see so many customers discovering and enjoying new apps and games," said Phil Schiller, senior vice-president of worldwide marketing at Apple. "In 2017 alone, iOS developers earned $26.5 billion - more than a 30 per cent increase over 2016." 

Pokémon GO returned to the top of the App Store charts on December 21 with the introduction of new augmented reality features, built on Apple's ARKit framework. Customers are now enjoying close to 2,000 ARKit-enabled apps spanning every category on the App Store. 

Among the most popular AR titles are games such as CSR Racing 2, Stack AR and Kings of Pool, while Amazon and Wayfair are among the best shopping apps. 

Over half-a-billion customers that visit the App Store every week. Since it was launched in July 2008, iOS developers have earned over $86 billion.