Mac App Store Serves Over 100 Million Game, App Downloads

The Mac App Store, Apple's digital distribution platform for games and applications on its Mac line of PCs, has recorded more than 100 million paid and free downloads since it launched in January. The milestone may suggest increasing awareness for games on the Macintosh platform, which have traditionally fallen short in sales compared to those available on Windows-based systems. The company claims the Mac App Store is "the largest and fastest growing PC software store in the world." Similar games-specific services like Valve Software's Steam, GameStop's Impulse, and others do not provide data for total downloads. Mac App Store downloads are tracking behind those on the App Store for iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads -- that platform saw 10 million downloads in its first weekend after launching, and 500 million downloads in six months. As with the App Store for iOS devices, the Mac App Store takes a 30 percent cut from all software purchases and in-app transactions (added in July with OS X Lion's launch), paying the remaining 70 percent to developers.