Apple said its App Store ecosystem "facilitated half a trillion dollars" in exchanges in 2019.
The company said that over 85% of that figure occurred through transactions from which it did not take a commission.
The announcement comes at a time when Apple and other U.S. tech giants are facing increased anti-competitive scrutiny.
A leading developer also called on the iPhone maker to lower the fees charged, ahead of next week's annual developer conference.
An Apple representative told the BBC that he is proud of the trade for enabling and welcoming control of his App Store.
Work and leisure
The study was commissioned by Apple but conducted by economists from the Boston Analysis-based consulting group.
It reviewed billing and sales for apps running on the tech company's iOS, Mac, Watch and Apple TV platforms.
This included:
- in-app advertising via apps like Twitter and Pinterest
- the sale of physical goods through apps like Asos and Amazon
- the sale of digital goods and services through apps including Mario Kart Tour and Tinder
- travel bookings via apps such as Uber and British Airways
- food deliveries via apps including Just Eat and Deliveroo
- multimedia app subscriptions including the Times newspaper and Netflix
- work app subscriptions including Zoom and Slack
The report attempted to account for externally made expenses, but led to the use of content within an app, such as a direct payment to Spotify, whose tracks were then listened to via its iPhone app.
In the same way it subtracted a part of the cost of in-app purchases whose content was used elsewhere, for example a Now TV subscription subscribed through the Sky app, if most of the shows were therefore watched directly on the app of a TV.
In total, economists claimed that $ 519 billion (£ 406 billion) was generated through Apple's software ecosystem. The figure excludes sales generated by the Android and Windows versions of the same products.
Physical goods and offline services accounted for the largest share of the sum: $ 413 billion.
By contrast, digital goods and services, from which Apple generally cuts a 30% cut, accounted for $ 61 billion.
Unrest for developers
The study's publications coincide with an appeal by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee to Apple's chief executive officer, Tim Cook and other technology leaders, to answer questions about antitrust concerns, according to reports.
The Axios news site said Friday that the committee also planned to force Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook to disclose internal documents on their digital markets if they did not voluntarily share them.
Apple plans to host its World Developer Conference next week. Ahead of the event, the co-founder of one of the leading corporate software developers has published his own list of doubts about Apple's commercial practices.
Among the changes requested by Will Shipley of Omni Group were:
- a cut in Apple's digital sales cut from 30% to 20%
- the right to charge update fees for major changes to the software
- the end of ads in the App Store to prevent the search results of a specific item from highlighting a competitor's product
"Apple has a market capitalization of around $ 1.5 tn and extracts more margin than any other company from the mobile market," commented CCS Insight consultancy Ben Wood.
"It is eager to remind people that he had to work to build this platform. But now it has become so powerful, it is not surprising that people wonder if the original terms of engagement are still correct."
