Apple Announces App Store Best Apps and Games of 2020

As part of its annual design awards, Apple has revealed its App Store Best of 2020 winners of the year, recognizing 15 apps and games that proved to be essential this year. The company usually holds the Apple Design Awards as part of its Worldwide Developers Conference. This year, that happened virtually as a result of coronavirus lockdowns – and so did the awards.

This can be for making life easier, healthier, or more connected in 2020. Notable for their high quality, creative design, usability, and innovative technology, these apps and games are equally notable for their positive cultural impact, helpfulness, and importance.

Phil Schiller, Apple Fellow had this to say about the Best of 2020 awards:

“This year, more than ever before, some of our most creative and connected moments happened in apps. This was thanks to the amazing work of developers who introduced fresh, helpful app experiences throughout the year. Around the world, we saw remarkable efforts from so many developers, and these Best of 2020 winners are 15 outstanding examples of that innovation. From helping us stay fit and mindful, to keeping our children’s education on track, to helping fight hunger, their impact was meaningful to so many of us.”

The independent developer of Wakeout! brought gentle exercise to home offices and classrooms with light-hearted and inclusive movements designed for everyone.

Vast fantasy worlds in games like Genshin Impact, Legends of Runeterra, Disco Elysium, Dandara Trials of Fear, and Apple Arcade’s Sneaky Sasquatch delivered a great escape, while Disney+ offered a sense of unlimited possibility that many craved.

Whether it was to facilitate distance learning through Zoom, create daily routines with Fantastical or lull us to sleep with Endel, the App Store Best of 2020 winners helped us live our best lives at home.

Apps are a reflection of culture, and in 2020, developers overwhelmingly led a trend towards helpfulness. To help users get the daily self-care they needed, and to emphasize Black well-being, Shine launched a section specifically dedicated to the intersectionality of mental health and Black lives.

For teachers and students needing to reinvent the classroom experience, Explain Everything Whiteboard offered a cloud-based collaboration tool so groups of students could continue to work on projects together, even remotely.

For families seeking to connect with loved ones, Caribu added dozens of interactive games and more than a hundred books to its real-time video-calling platform. Pokémon GO reinvented their popular outdoor gameplay with at-home experiences.

The United Nations World Food Programme’s ShareTheMeal app made it easy for users to make a difference in the lives of others, with more than 87 million meals shared to date. Around the world, app developers channeled their creative energy into helping users stay healthy, educated, connected and entertained.

To commemorate these 15 apps, Apple designers brought meticulous craftsmanship to create the first-ever physical App Store Best of 2020 award. Inspired by the signature blue App Store icon, each award reveals the Apple logo set into 100% recycled aluminum, with the name of the winner engraved on the other side.

You can check out all fifteen winners of the Apple Best of 2020 awards below:

iPhone App of the Year: Wakeout! (Andres Canella, USA)
iPhone Game of the Year: Genshin Impact (miHoYo, China)
iPad App of the Year: Zoom (Zoom, USA)
iPad Game of the Year: Legends of Runeterra (Riot Games, USA)
Mac App of the Year: Fantastical (Flexibits, USA)
Mac Game of the Year: Disco Elysium (ZA/UM (UK/Estonia)

Apple TV App of the Year: Disney+ (Disney, USA)
Apple TV Game of the Year: Dandara Trials of Fear (Raw Fury, Sweden)
Apple Watch App of the Year: Endel (Endel, Germany)
Apple Arcade Game of the Year: Sneaky Sasquatch (RAC7, Canada)

App Trends of the Year:

Shine for helping users practice self care (Shine, USA)
Explain Everything Whiteboard for helping bring remote classrooms to life (Explain Everything, Poland)
Caribu for connecting families to loved ones (Caribu, USA)
Pokémon GO for reinventing the way we play (Niantic, USA)