There are many nuances to the guidelines that may apply to you or your business, but the basic upshot is that most developers will pay less, and free app developers will still pay nothing at all. Paid apps with fewer than 1 million downloads (which is the majority) will pay just 5% of the store services fee, or 7% for developers who remain in the App Store ecosystem.
How much is fair?
For all the complexity, it seems reasonable to believe that Apple’s problems with regulators will inevitably center around the question of how much it is appropriate to charge for access to its ecosystem. It’s not that globally accepted and used computing platforms create themselves; they are the sum of decades of work, investment and effort that requires a reward. Otherwise, why bother trying?
Apple's biggest criticEpic CEO Tim Sweeney doesn’t see it that way, arguing that Apple’s 15% top fee is an “illegal garbage fee.” But it’s hard to discern in that argument any recognition of the value that Apple’s platforms provide. It can’t be that Sweeney doesn’t understand this intrinsic value. After all, Epic charges app developers who use Unreal Engine. 5% of income After the first million dollars, is that a “junk fee”?
