YouTube becomes the top grossing iPhone app for the first time

YouTube recently jumped to the top position for the first time ever on the iPhone platform. YouTube had previously been on the top 10 list over the years but it had never reached a spot higher than #3. An app store intelligence firm named “Sensor Tower” observed this jump.

The launch of “YouTube Red” in-app subscriptions in 2015, almost instantly cannoned YouTube to one of the top grossing apps. The following month after launching YouTube Red, the YouTube iPhone app raced all the way to 6th position in the list, earning around $100,000 - $300,000 per day, excluding the iPad traffic.

Since then YouTube’s revenue from the iOS platform has climbed considerably, as YouTube Red itself gained fame. This combined with other trends like YouTube’s youngest users also getting their own phones, cheaper streaming data plans from their mobile carriers that offer YouTube streaming for free or offer cheap unlimited data plans, live streaming, messaging, community, reels and others helped YouTube achieve this spot.

The report on Sensor Tower reads that gross user spending on the iOS platform peaks to more than $200 million worldwide, since the start of YouTube’s in-app monetization in 2015. Last month it grossed to around $14 Million, which is a 133% annual increase.

This revenue number doesn’t include money made from other sources like YouTube Music, YouTube Gaming, or the other ways that YouTube makes it money from, like rentals, purchases or advertisements.