Some App Store developers received a Community Chest card from Apple that read “App Store error in your favor. Raise $10.5 million. Hey, that’s a reasonable way to explain what this story is about. After all, Apple acts like a monopoly according to the US Department of Justice is actually a bug in the App Store Connect program that last week incorrectly showed that some App Store developers were making more than $1 million from their apps listed on the App Store.
App Store Connect allows developers of apps listed in the App Store to view app sales reports and analytics, and even invite users to test their apps using TestFlight. According to AppleInsider, the developers posted on social media that the sales and revenue figures on App Store Connect are not accurate and that the 24-hour view can see large changes in the numbers over several hours.
The App Store app developer earned $10.5 million, according to App Store Connect
The bottom line is that App Store Connect shows developers that they’ve made a lot more money than usual, with some showing earnings ranging from $2 million to $10.5 million. The latter figure is what developer Jeff Johnson saw on his account that prompted him to post on Mastodon, “Best day of my life.” Developers affected by the bug have seen their revenues reach a figure 999% higher than what they should be.
Another App Store developer becomes a millionaire on paper
Another iOS app developer, James Thomson, had $3.88 million in revenue according to App Store Connect, though Apple seemed to realize something was amiss. At the top of Thomson’s App Store Connect page was a message: “There is a problem with the sales and revenue data in the 24-hour view from April 10, 2024 at 22:00 UTC. We are working to resolve this.”
The bug may lead some developers to spend much more money on ads than they intended. App Store developers can arrange to automate their ad spend based on the hourly revenue they receive. When these numbers are artificially high by mistake, especially as high as 999% to the millions of dollars, some developers could end up getting hit with the huge amounts of money used to automatically advertise their apps.