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For the first time in over 8 years, Google hikes the maximum price of an app in the Play Store

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By Alan Friedman

Published: May 24, 2024, 6:00 PM

For the first time in over 8 years, Google hikes the maximum price of an app in the Play Store

Back in October 2015, Google raised the maximum price on Play Store apps from $200 to $400. Since that hike, Google has kept the maximum price for a Play Store app at $400...until last week when, at Google I/O 2024, developers were given the nod to hike app prices to as high as $999.99. That works out to a 150% increase. Developers could take advantage of a new installment feature to allow buyers to pay for an expensive app priced at, say, $999.99, over time.

You probably won't find many apps priced at the new $999.99 maximum. There are always those apps that exist for the sole purpose of allowing some insecure smartphone users to show how rich they are by buying an app for the maximum price and delivering practically no features. Other apps offering business-class software and other services might be sold at a subscription price at or near the maximum.

The most expensive game in the Play Store has been FisherPunk

Per Android Authority, the most expensive game in the App Store is one with the title "Fisherpunk-Most Expensive Game" which carries a $400 price tag. The developer now has the option of hiking the price of this game to as high as $999.99. Several suspicious five-star reviews say that the game is so good that it would be worth paying as much as $800 to install it. Note how the developer works "Most Expensive Game" into the app's title.

Besides the developers who can now charge a higher maximum price for their apps, another beneficiary of this change is Google itself. Developers using Google's in-app payment processing platform turn over 15% of the first million dollars that they collect over a year. Once developers exceed their first million dollars in revenue, Google collects 30% of the amount. So you can see, the higher the prices that developers charge for their apps, the larger the amount of money that ends up in Google's coffers.

If Google waits another 103 months before it increases the maximum app price allowed in the Play Store, we will be writing about this again in December 2032 and by that time, the maximum app price could be close to $2,500.

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Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.

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