Apple's Expanding Game Content to Aid Services Growth: What's Ahead?

Apple’s AAPL strong game content portfolio benefits its paid subscriber base, which grew double-digit on a year-over-year basis in the third-quarter fiscal 2025. Apple’s strategy of adding new games on a continuous basis is expected to drive its user base. Apple Arcade currently offers more than 200 games.

In August, the iPhone maker announced new games, such as NFL Retro Bowl ’26, Jeopardy! Daily, and My Talking Tom Friends+, which are set to launch on Sept. 4. Another game, Hello Kitty Island Adventure, is scheduled to be released on Sept. 18. On Aug. 8, Apple added Play-Doh World, Worms Across Worlds, Let’s Go Mightycat!, and Everybody Shogi to Apple Arcade. 

At this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, the company launched Apple Games, which enables players to enjoy all their games in one convenient place. Players can see all the games ever downloaded from the App Store for their iPhone and iPad, as well as games they have on Mac. The Games app introduces challenges, a new way to compete with friends in score-based showdowns. 

Apple’s Services business accounted for 29.2% of third-quarter fiscal 2025 sales. Services revenues grew 13.3% year over year to $27.42 billion, with paid accounts growing double digits year over year. Continued expansion of Tap to Pay and Wallet, along with strong demand for Apple TV+ content, drove top-line growth.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2025 Services sales is pegged at $108.48 billion, indicating 12.8% growth from the figure reported in fiscal 2024.

Apple Faces Tough Competition in the Gaming Market

AAPL is facing stiff competition from the likes of Electronic Arts EA and Take-Two Interactive TTWO in the gaming space. 

EA benefits from strong performance across EA SPORTS, Apex Legends and catalog titles. In first-quarter fiscal 2026, full-game net bookings climbed 27% year over year, driven by robust digital downloads. 

Take-Two Interactive benefits from strong demand for NBA 2K25, Grand Theft Auto, Zynga titles and mobile games. In first-quarter fiscal 2026, recurrent consumer spending grew 14% year over year and represented around 83% of net bookings, highlighting monetization strength.

AAPL’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Apple shares have dropped 7.3% year to date, underperforming the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s return of 13%.

Apple Stock’s Performance

The AAPL stock is trading at a premium, with a forward 12-month price/earnings of 29.85X compared with the broader sector’s 27.71X. AAPL has a Value Score of F.

AAPL Valuation

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2025 earnings is pegged at $7.35 per share, up 3.4% over the past 30 days, suggesting 8.9% year-over-year growth.
 

Apple Inc. Price and Consensus

Apple Inc. price-consensus-chart | Apple Inc. Quote

Apple currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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