The man behind the iBeer app reveals how much money the joke app made him and it’s wild

There’s something so deeply nostalgic about the seemingly inescapable iBeer app in the 2010’s, and it turns out it was quite the money spinner for the man behind it.

Back in 2008, iPhone owners could not get enough of a novelty app that turned their screen into a longneck ice-cold beer with the boys.

iBeer rode the early App Store wave straight into internet legend status, and it was particularly popular among young kids who weren’t allowed to drink yet.

Now, the creator has finally shared the kind of money he earned from it, which explains why the app never really disappeared from pop culture.

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iBeer app was peak early iPhone magic

If you had an iPhone, iPod Touch, or any type of Noughties gadget in the late 2000s, you probably saw someone ‘pour’ a pint on their screen, tilt the phone back, and pretend to take a sip.

That was iBeer in a nutshell, a simple simulation that made it look like your iPhone was a glass of beer, complete with tricks like shaking for foam and even triggering a burp sound effect.

The app reportedly racked up more than 120 million downloads and, at one point, was even celebrated as a ‘Best of iTunes’ pick.

The man behind it is Steve Sheraton, a Swiss-born magician and physical comedian who had already built a career performing before iBeer blew up.

The timing did a lot of the heavy lifting because the first iPhone era was full of people still figuring out what a smartphone even was, and iBeer played perfectly into that sense of surprise and novelty, as well as the silliness of early tech.

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How much money the joke app made him

Sheraton later hopped on Reddit for a little Q and A session, and someone asked the obvious question: how much money did the iBeer app actually make him?

His answer was simply that it earned him ‘a few million dollars,’ adding that most of it went back into other technology projects and lawyers, and that he ‘lives comfortably now.’

After he initially blew up, he went on Ellen, SNL, and even starred with everyone’s favorite Muppets on Sesame Street.

These days, he says he still builds niche apps for professional magicians and splits his time across multiple projects, including hands-on prototyping work.

He has also reportedly relocated to Spain, where he lives a quieter life on a farm, and despite the app that made him his millions, Sheraton has been sober since 2019.