Apple Arcade, the mobile gaming subscription service, is reportedly one of several Apple services suffering from low usage and profits. It’s been reported in the past that payouts to developers have been declining for years, and if it weren’t included in the Apple One bundle, it would be considered unprofitable.
25% of Apple Arcade Users During it First Years Were on Free Trials
The information comes, ironically, from tech and business news outlet The Information, who reported that Apple is losing over $1 billion a year on its streaming service, Apple TV+. The report also mentions other Apple services that are supposedly not performing well, including Apple Arcade.
“Apple Arcade, for example, had only 2 million users in its first year after it launched in 2019, with roughly 25% of them on free trials, according to one person with direct knowledge of the figures,” reads The Information’s report. “Without Apple One, some services, such as Apple Arcade and Fitness+, likely wouldn’t be profitable.” Apple One is a subscription bundle introduced in 2020 that offers access to Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and iCloud storage, with a Premier plan option that includes Apple News+ and Apple Fitness+ as well.
Apple Arcade was launched only a year prior in 2019, offering direct access to paid games without advertisements or in-app purchases. 71 games were included at launch, and developers like Capcom, Sega, Bandai Namco, and Devolver Digital partnered with Apple to create games for the service. But a report from Neil Long at Mobilegamer.biz from last year claimed that payouts to developers had been declining for year, and that a “shitload” of projects had been canceled. One developer reportedly told Long that the Apple Arcade service had “the smell of death” around it. Still, Apple added 10 new games to the service just this past January.
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Apple needs to just buy things this and Apple TV aren’t profitable. Buy Disney already fold it into Apple TV Plus clean the company up.