Apple announced Tuesday that its App Store thwarted over $2 billion in fraudulent payment transactions in 2024 alone, part of more than $9 billion in fraud it prevented in the last five years. In addition, the company reported blocking nearly 2 million potentially dangerous app submissions from being made available to users last year.
The fresh insights, released shortly before Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), appear carefully timed to underscore the value of the App Store’s security measures for developers considering independent payment solutions. The context is notable due to a recent antitrust victory achieved by Epic Games, maker of Fortnite, which forced Apple to let U.S. developers offer alternative payment paths within their apps—where Apple cannot take a commission.
Prominent apps like Spotify, Fortnite, and Amazon Kindle rapidly embraced this newfound freedom by redirecting users to their own payment services, thus circumventing Apple’s fee structure. However, smaller app developers remain cautious about stepping away from Apple’s platforms. The company’s fraud prevention infrastructure handles various complex issues on their behalf—ranging from chargebacks and refunds to combating outright payment fraud—services that justify the 15% to 30% commission on sales and subscriptions through the App Store.
Emphasizing the scale of operations, Apple highlighted that its App Store now reaches users across 175 territories and averages over 813 million weekly visitors. It further stressed that financial transaction fraud is only one aspect of broader protections provided. Apple emphasized the work it takes to curtail criminal attempts at identity theft, personal data breaches, pirate storefronts, and unauthorized or harmful app deployments, all of which also pose significant threats to users and developers alike.
In 2024 alone, Apple removed more than 146,000 developer accounts due to fraud risks and denied entry to another 139,000 suspicious accounts attempting to join its developer programs. The company also disclosed that it blocked around 711 million fraudulent customer account creations and disabled nearly 129 million compromised customer accounts within the past year. Additionally, Apple shut down over 10,000 illegitimate apps hosted on unauthorized pirate marketplaces, citing concerns such as embedded malware, illegal content, unauthorized gambling, and copyright violations.
As the EU’s Digital Markets Act has opened the door for users in Europe to access alternative app stores, Apple’s statistics serve as a timely cautionary reminder about potential risks outside its ecosystem. The company reports it intercepted almost 4.6 million attempts to install or launch apps from non-official or unapproved third-party sources, reinforcing its long-held argument that the App Store commission not only covers payment processing but includes broader guarantees of security, hosting reliability, global distribution, and prevention of fraudulent exploits.
Apple also highlighted early data indicating that small businesses, particularly those benefiting from Apple’s Small Business Program, might find little economic incentive transitioning away from Apple’s payment system. Preliminary independent studies suggest smaller developers face greater hurdles and potentially higher costs managing their own payment platforms compared to using Apple’s built-in solutions.
Collectively, these figures and insights represent Apple’s latest argument in favor of the App Store model at a time when developers have unprecedented flexibility to pursue independent distribution and monetization approaches.
