Apple has released its yearly “Best of” list, highlighting its picks for the top apps, games, albums, movies, podcasts, books, and TV shows — just in time for your holiday purchasing!
As is always the case, the lists combine Apple’s own hand-curated picks and popularity-driven charts, based on purchases in Apple’s various services such as iTunes, the App Store, iBooks Store, and Apple Music.
As its iPhone app of the year, Apple chose popular meditation app Calm, while it singled out the AR-augmented puzzler Splitter Critters as its iPhone game of the year. On the iPad front, Apple selected photo editing app Affinity Photo and puzzle game The Witness.
If you’re looking for more suggestions, Apple also offers lists of the top free iPhone and iPad apps of the year, paid iPhone and iPad apps, top paid and free games for both platforms, and more.
That same mix of curated picks and crowdsourced ones extends to “trends of the year” where Apple seemingly chooses picks that reflect larger trending themes this year. This includes apps which incorporate augmented reality (which Apple is very keen to promote) such as Ikea Place, eco-friendly apps, and more.
As far as Mac apps goes, Apple named MacPhun’s photo editing app Aurora HDR 2018 as its Best Mac App of the Year.
When it comes to music, Apple notes that the most popular albums was Drake’s More Life, while the most popular song of 2017 was Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You. Moana is the most popular movie, Game of Thrones is the top TV show, Fresh Air remains the most downloaded podcast of the year, and The Handmaid’s Tale was the top-selling book.
You can find more details about Apple’s picks for the year by visiting the App Store.
