Merrill Lynch: A deep dive into Apple's iOS App Store

Photo & Video apps generated the most revenue in fiscal 2018, up an estimated 175% year over year. Games, up 12%, brought up the rear.

Key takeaways for fiscal 2018 from a note to clients posted Friday by analyst Wamsi Mohan:

• The iOS App Store generated an estimated $13.41 billion revenue in fiscal 2018, compared with $10.92 billion in 2017. This would represent 22.8% year-over-year growth.
• App Store downloads grew 7.4% year over year to 29.5 billion, compared with 27.5 billion in 2017.
• Average dollars per download increased 14.3% to $0.45, compared with $0.40 2017.

Which apps drove that growth? Merrill Lynch offers a dozen bar charts. Here are two:

Click to enlarge.

My take: Who would have thought Apple could create a Fortune 500 company (below Land O’Lakes, above Occidental Petroleum) out of a $0.45-per-item business?