Apple just made a mind-blowing amount of money

Apple iPhone 6
This is what a whole lot of money looks like

Apple posted its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 - the period ending December 27, 2014 - and the results are mind-blowing.

Thanks to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Apple sold more phones than in any previous quarter. With markedly different designs and new features, the new handsets finally gave old iPhone users a good reason to upgrade, and interest in large phablet-style phones has never been higher.

But that wasn't Apple's only record - the company also made more money from Mac and App Store sales.

And perhaps the biggest milestone of all is that with $18.04 billion (about £11.87b, AU$22.72b) in profit, Apple just made more money in a single quarter than any other company in history, according to TechCrunch.

Apple vs natural gas

Apple reportedly unseated Gazprom, a Russian natural gas company, beating its record by a couple of billions. The iPhone maker now holds five of the top 20 of these records, the other 15 all belonging to oil and gas companies. Holy crap.

Vastly increased sales in China helped in this area as well, it seems.

As far as the nitty gritty, Apple sold 74.5 million iPhones, including the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Compare that to 51 million iPhones sold during the same period the year prior.

And the company's total revenue grew 30% year-over-year to $74.6 billion (about £49b, AU$94b).

For the second quarter Apple predicts revenue between $52 billion (about £34b, AU$65b) and $55 billion (about £36b, AU$69).

TOPICS
Michael Rougeau

Michael Rougeau is a former freelance news writer for TechRadar. Studying at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Northeastern University, Michael has bylines at Kotaku, 1UP, G4, Complex Magazine, Digital Trends, GamesRadar, GameSpot, IFC, Animal New York, @Gamer, Inside the Magic, Comic Book Resources, Zap2It, TabTimes, GameZone, Cheat Code Central, Gameshark, Gameranx, The Industry, Debonair Mag, Kombo, and others.

Micheal also spent time as the Games Editor for Playboy.com, and was the managing editor at GameSpot before becoming an Animal Care Manager for Wags and Walks.