Apple reveals all the finalists for this year's App Store Awards
As we near the end of the year, Apple is gearing up for the highly coveted App Store Awards, which aim to celebrate some of the best apps and games that have made an impact this year. Nearly 40 finalists have been selected, and we’re going to take a look at some of the exciting games that have been picked.
iPhone Game of the Year
Our first finalist is Afterplace, a delightful retro title inspired by Zelda. It has been designed by solo indie developer Evan Kice and takes place back in the days of pixel-art RPGs. From forest exploration to dungeon crawling, this game has a massive open world waiting to be explored.
Next up is HoYoverse’s highly successful title, Honkai: Star Rail. It is a grand space fantasy adventure that takes place in a thrilling sci-fi universe where all living and sentient beings follow the Paths of their respective deities called Aeons.
Finally, we have Vampire Survivors, Poncle’s roguelike bullet hell game that has taken the world by storm. It is an absolutely entertaining arcade game ported from PC, and tasks players with defeating the armies of darkness.
iPad Game of the Year
Eggy Party is the perfect party game to play with your buddies on a bigger screen. Players a free to participate in a variety of different minigames with different objectives, similar to Fall Guys, but with the ability to fully customize and create your own courses in the Eggy Workshop.
Happy Juice Games’ Lost in Play is another contender on iPad, one that has already received critical acclaim. It is a touching story of two siblings who embark on a magical adventure fuelled by their imagination.
Last on the iPad list is Pocket City 2, the sequel to the beloved city builder. Instead of the usual top-down view, the game has a more personalised street view to better look at the streets and various structures placed throughout the town.
Apple Arcade Game of the Year
Cityscapes, another city builder has been selected as a finalist for Apple’s gaming service. It’s like the classics, allowing players to build the city of their dreams using their imagination. The game also comes with a sandbox mode for maximum free reign.
Sunblink and Sanrio also feature their adorable title in the list, Hello Kitty Island Adventure. It is a narrative-driven life sim featuring all favourites from the franchise like Cinnamoroll, Kuromi, Chococat, and Badtz-maru.
The final contender is stitch., an extremely relaxing game which already won at the Apple Design Awards 2023 in the Inclusivity category. It brings the meditative art of embroidery to everyone in a more portable format.
Which game is your favourite? You can also find similar titles in this definitive list of all Apple Arcade games!
