Around 4,600 iOS and Google Play developers made more than $1 million in revenue in 2016, while some 30,000 developers made more than $100,000, a study by Pollen Velocity Capital and Priori Data revealed.

Games are the biggest revenue generators when it comes to apps, with 81 per cent of developers in the $1 million bracket, or 2,519, made their money from gaming apps, while only 3 per cent did so from social media apps (click images to enlarge).

“The Millionaire’s Index showcases the continued growth of the mobile app marketplace and signals that it is maturing into a platform that is providing a meaningful revenue stream to a growing number of emerging business operating in the digital economy,” the report said.

The report also showed 56 per cent of app store earnings were made by companies outside of the top 100 publishers.

This is: “good news for the app economy, showing that success on mobile is no longer the preserve of just the very top tier of developers.” said Martin Macmillan, CEO of Pollen VC.

“It’s great to see emerging digital businesses from all corners of the earth play on a global stage empowered by a democratised app economy,” he added.

Meawhile Patrick Kane, CEO of Priori Data, pointed out there have been three major shifts in the last year: stores have improved subscription products for developers and developers have become more sophisticated in leveraging them, while consumers are more willing to pay for content and services beyond games.

On 1 June, Apple revealed developers earned more than $70 billion since the App Store launched in 2008, and overall downloads grew more than 70 per cent in the 12 months to that date.

It also revealed the availability of a subscription business model across all 25 app categories helped drive a 58 per cent annual increase in active paid App Store subscribers over the past year.