It also exists because it's a low friction way for app developers to generate revenue for their app.

On iOS it’s the only way an app can be installed at all, so it’s not like users or app developers have a choice.

827a a day ago | parent | prev [-]

No one is making any money on the Mac App Store. Its likely that even Apple's internal accounting positions the Mac App Store as an unprofitable product offering, given the engineering and support it requires to run, let alone as a product to turn revenue for third party developers.

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schnable a day ago | parent [-]

Strictly speaking, this can't be true because I have purchased apps (that have been around for years and are still supported) on the Mac App Store that are not available any other way.

	▲	827a a day ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah, I guess what I mean is, as a percentage of revenue, the Mac App Store is a rounding error for most developers. There's a small number of bespoke, $5-$15 apps, possibly distributed only through the Mac App Store, strongly reminiscent of the early days of Mac indie development; but this is fractions of a penny relative to the ~11 figures of revenue the iOS App Store drives every year.