Apple's App Store sales soared 40pc to $28 billion last year

Developers who sold apps through the store made a total of $20 billion in 2016. Photo / Getty Images

Apple took nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in app purchases on New Year's Day, marking its busiest ever day on the App Store and capping off a record-breaking 2016.

The technology giant said customers splashed out nearly $240m (NZ$340m)) worldwide on January 1 on apps for phones, tablets, watches and other devices.

The world's biggest company continues to grow rapidly, managing to eclipse the $144m in app sales it generated on the first day of 2016.

Developers who sold apps through the store made a total of $20b (NZ$28b) in 2016, a rise of 40pc on the prior year and double the sums generated two years ago, according to Apple. The company's 30pc cut suggests the total amount spent on apps was around $28.5b (NZ$40b).

The App Store now offers 2.2m apps, ranging from one-man start-ups to gaming giants. Developers have flocked to the platform, with the number of apps soaring by a fifth in the last year alone.

The US firm does not reveal exactly how much of its own earnings come from the App Store. Its results for the year to September 2016 showed that its services division generated net sales of $24.3b (NZ$34.5b); this includes income from apps, music, licensing and Apple Care policies.

The most-downloaded app on January 1 this year was Super Mario Run, one of Nintendo's first forays into smartphone gaming, which is free to use but costs £7.99 to unlock fully.

Mario's latest outing has recently replaced Pokemon Go, another game in the Nintendo stable, at the top of the charts.

Even apps that customers download for free can produce income through one-off purchases and regular subscriptions. Apple said subscriptions to services such as Netflix, Tinder and Spotify generated payments worth $2.7b (NZ$3.8b) last year, an increase of 74pc on a year ago.

Apple has come under scrutiny this week for pulling the New York Times app from the store in China, after a request from the Chinese authorities.

The company's iBooks and iTunes Movies stores have been blocked in the country since April, just months after they were launched, as Beijing clamps down on any online services seen to threaten national security.