Apple today presented its App Store Best of 2020 winners, recognizing 15 apps and games, including Zoom, Disney+, Pokémon GO, and more, that proved to be essential for making life easier, healthier, and more connected this year. These 15 apps are notable for their high quality, creative design, usability, and innovative technology.
“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, in a statement. “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.”
Apple’s App Store 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.
Apple’s App Store 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 Long Hat House.
• 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.
Shine, the #1 self-care app created by women of color, makes caring for users’ mental and emotional health a habit.
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, especially during the COVID-19 lockdowns, Caribu added dozens of interactive games and more than a thousand new 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 App Store logo set into 100 percent recycled aluminum, with the name of the winner engraved on the other side.
MacDailyNews Take: Congratulations to Zoom, Disney+, Pokémon GO and all the rest of the winners!
Talk about bleak… I mean seriously Apple. Fantastical because it can trigger a zoom conference? I just used YOUR app, (Filemaker), to create an app that pulls data from a FileMaker Server, and a SQLserver, and makes it available on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Windows in less than 2 hours. That’s freaking cool. Pokemon go?
Hold my beer, let me add trigger a zoom conference.