Apple Announces App Store Best of 2020 Winners

Apple announced its App Store Best of 2020 winners today, recognizing 15 exceptional apps and games.

Notable for their high quality, creative design, usability, and innovative technology, these apps and games are equally celebrated for their positive cultural impact, helpfulness, and importance.
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.

“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,” said Phil Schiller, Apple Fellow. “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.”





Best Apps of 2020
● iPhone App of the Year: Wakeout!, developed by Andres Canella.
● iPad App of the Year: Zoom.
● Mac App of the Year: Fantastical, developed by Flexibits.
● Apple TV App of the Year: Disney+.
● Apple Watch App of the Year: Endel.

Best Games of 2020
● iPhone Game of the Year: “Genshin Impact,” from miHoYo.
● iPad Game of the Year: “Legends of Runeterra,” from Riot Games.
● Mac Game of the Year: “Disco Elysium,” from ZA/UM.
● Apple TV Game of the Year: “Dandara Trials of Fear,” from Raw Fury.
● Apple Arcade Game of the Year: “Sneaky Sasquatch,” from RAC7.

App Trends of 2020
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.


App Store Best of 2020 Award
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 App Store logo set into 100 percent recycled aluminum, with the name of the winner engraved on the other side.

Earlier today Apple named its top books, audiobooks, and podcasts of 2020. You can check those out here.