Apple is Killing the App Store Affiliate Program

Apple has announced that it's killing the App Store affiliate program effective October 1st.

Thank you for participating in the affiliate program for apps. With the launch of the new App Store on both iOS and macOS and their increased methods of app discovery, we will be removing apps from the affiliate program. Starting on October 1st, 2018, commissions for iOS and Mac apps and in-app content will be removed from the program. All other content types (music, movies, books, and TV) remain in the affiliate program.

Apple attempted to drop the affiliate commission rate from 7% to 2.5% last year but then backtracked after publisher uproar and clarified that only in-app purchases would be reduced.


The news is devastating to many publishers and could potentially put some popular Apple sites out of business.

Eli Hodapp of TouchArcade writes, "I genuinely have no idea what TouchArcade is going to do. Through thick and thin, and every curveball the industry threw at us, we always had App Store affiliate revenue- Which makes a lot of sense as we drive a ton of purchases for Apple. I don’t know how the takeaway from this move can be seen as anything other than Apple extending a massive middle finger to sites like TouchArcade, AppShopper, and many others who have spent the last decade evangelizing the App Store and iOS gaming- Particularly on the same day they announced record breaking earnings of $53.3 billion and a net quarterly profit of $11.5 billion."

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