Apple sees US App Store spending fall 6% in Q2 2026

Sensor Tower told the FT it largely blamed Apple’s ongoing legal fight with Epic Games, which forced Apple to permit developers to direct users to external payment links instead of using Apple’s in-app payment flow. Appfigures estimates cited by the FT say Apple’s US commission revenue has contracted 18% so far this year, and that Apple is taking less revenue in Brazil and Japan after being required to open its stores in those markets.

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney seized on the numbers on X, calling Apple’s “30% junk fees” a cause of higher IAP prices that “extract[] the far majority of profit from games on the App Store, and depriving developers of the ability to reinvest.” He also criticised Apple’s introduction of ads in App Store search, saying it makes the iPhone and iPad economy “a rigged pay-to-win system favoring the most greedy monetizing developers.” Sweeney contrasted Apple with consoles, writing that “Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft heavily promote the best games, and sales are merit based.” He added allegations about Apple blocking Fortnite from a billion users and accused Apple of turning a blind eye to Roblox’s policy violations.

Sweeney concluded on X that “Apple made iPhone and iPad a colossally bad place for gaming,” calling for Apple to “abandon[] open warfare against developers, law enforcers, and rule of law itself, and make wholesale changes to fix the godawful mess they created.”