How lucrative Apple's App Store has been for developers over the years

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This week marks WWDC, Apple's annual developer conference. While the company's consumer-facing announcements get the most buzz, the show is also a chance for Apple to connect and exchange ideas with the many app makers that help make its devices as useful as they are.

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And as this chart from Statista shows, those developers have good reason to head down to San Jose this year - Apple's app business is still lucrative, and it continues to grow.

Apple said last week that developers have collectively earned more than $70 billion from its iOS App Store since it launched in 2008. Given that Apple takes a roughly 30% cut from App Store sales, the company appears to have sold roughly $100 billion worth of software through the iPhone and iPad.

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That said, the wealth isn't spread equally. The top 1% of developers totally dominate downloads for the App Store, leaving the vast majority of developers fighting for pieces of a relatively small pie. But if you can make a hit, there's money to be made here.

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Mike Nudelman/Business Insider/Statista

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