RevenueCat's 2026 State of Subscription Apps report reveals a troubling trend in the mobile app economy. While 2025 saw record new app releases driven by AI-assisted development tools like vibe coding, the revenue gains are concentrated among market leaders.

According to the report, the top 25% of apps grew monthly recurring revenue by 80% year over year, with the top 10% growing by an impressive 306%. This stands in stark contrast to the bottom quartile, which saw a 33% drop, while the rest of the apps posted only a modest 5% gain. The report also found that fewer new apps are reaching significant revenue milestones, with only 17% crossing $1,000/month recurring revenue in 2025, down from 19% in 2024.

The Photo & Video category showed the strongest performance, with 21.4% of new apps reaching $1,000/month, while Gaming apps led the $10,000/month tier at 8.9%. The report highlights that higher-priced apps generate significantly more lifetime value per user ($62.19 versus $10.69 for low-priced apps), though they retain users for shorter periods.