“The top 10% of apps grew 306% and the bottom actually lost money and the median app only grew 5.3%. These markets are just sorting machines and they're going to sort the fittest to the top and the least fit to the bottom.”

Power law is brutal: top 10% grew 306%, median grew 5.3%, bottom lost money

The 2026 RevenueCat SOSA data shows extreme power-law concentration in the subscription app market. The median app barely matched GDP growth while the top quartile grew 80% year-over-year. Eiting frames this as a 'sorting machine' — the same dynamic seen in every maturing software category. The implication: being a good app is not enough; being the best in a niche is the only defensible position.