That's the lead find from Distimo's latest look at the App Store and Google Play in the US, with the company reporting that, on iPhone, new publishers make up just 2 percent of the top 250 outfits in the region.
Tight at the top
That share increases slightly to 3 percent on Google Play, but Distimo's report suggest that, as the mobile market expands, so newcomers are finding it difficult to stand out from the crowd.
"It is a very crowded application market, and there are literally thousands of applications on the store shelves," details Distimo in the report.
"New publishers represent a small part of the revenue, and it shows that it really is a tight market."
The new releases that tend to chart highly, Distimo adds, are those linked to big franchises, with Angry Birds: Star Wars, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Temple Run 2 the fastest growing new apps in terms of revenue each amassing $1 million worldwide within a week of release.
Revenue raisers
This news comes as revenue for developers as a whole is on the up and up, with Distimo's calculations suggesting Apple has paid out $1 billion to studios since the start of January 2012.
"Google Play showed relative huge growth in the past six months, with a growth of 107 percent in daily revenues across the 20 biggest countries compared to August 2012," detailed Distimo.
"The growth in the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad was less in the past six months, but still amounted to 52 percent growth in daily revenues. The growth was 17 percent for Google Play within the last month, and a mere three percent for the Apple App Store.
"It is important to remember, however, that the absolute values in the Apple App Store were already much higher."
Magic number
The picture also becomes more rosy, however, when you expand the search beyond the top 250 publishers.
Distimo states a "whole different story can be told" if you branch out to look at the top 300 application instead, suggesting consumers aren't reluctant to try new apps entirely.
"In the US, 17 percent of the top 300 Applications in the Apple App Store for iPhone were new applications, for example, while in Google Play only 12 percent of the top 300 applications were new," detailed the firm.
You can download the report for yourself from Distimo's website.
