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Blast off with space games and female erotica [Awesome Apps of the Week]

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Blast off with space games and female erotica [Awesome Apps of the Week]
These apps are out of this world.
Image: Cult of Mac

Space: the final frontier. And kinda sorta the theme of this week’s roundup of new and updated apps.

We’ve got an app that brings Star Trek, NASA and Tetris faces to Apple Watch. A free iOS game that will get arcade fans flashing back to Asteroids. And an audio app for women that blends erotica, meditation and ASMR for a trip deep into inner space.

I’m not sure how Godzilla and Kong fit into the space theme, but they crash onto the scene as well. (If only we had SpaceGodzilla.) Three … two … one …

These 5 mobile games pulled in more than $1 billion each in 2020

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Who needs ‘Fortnite’ when ‘PUBG Mobile’ is an out to get a significant upgrade?
PUBG Mobile was the year's big winner.
Photo: Tencent Mobile

The world may have struggled in 2020, but life’s been good on the App Store — and especially if you’re the makers of PUBG Mobile, Honor of Kings, Pokémon GO, Coin Master, and Roblox.

Those five mobile games all broke $1 billion in takings in 2020, across both iOS and Android. The first two, both made by Tencent, managed to break through the $2 billion barrier, claims a report from app analytics platform Sensor Tower.

PUBG Mobile surpasses $3.5 billion in player spending, most of it on iOS

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PUBG Mobile
PUBG is having a great year.
Screenshot: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

While Epic, the makers of battle royale game Fortnite, wage war against Apple, rival title PUBG Mobile goes from strength to strength in terms of player spending.

According to app analytics platform Sensor Tower, PUBG has just passed a major milestone: surpassing $3.5 billion in lifetime spending. Of that, $500 million comes in the past 72 days alone while people were stuck home during coronavirus-induced lockdown.

Apple taunts Epic Games by hyping Fortnite rivals

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Who needs ‘Fortnite’ when ‘PUBG Mobile’ is an out to get a significant upgrade?
Apple wants everyone to know that Fortnite rival PUBG Mobile is about to get a big upgrade to its visuals.
Photo: Tencent Mobile

Apple’s lead story on the App Store Today screen is about the upcoming season of PUBG Mobile. The iPhone-maker also recently did a similar promotion for Butter Royale.

It’s clear Apple wants everyone to know that while Fortnite was kicked out of the App Store, there are other battle royale games.

Christmas Day app spending tops $250 million dollars for first time ever

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App Store icon
Business is booming for the App Store.
Photo: PhotoAtelier/Flickr

Christmas Day turned out to be one of the biggest moneymaking days ever for Apple and Google as far as app sales go.

SensorTower published its latest report of holiday app sales revealing that overall spending on the App Store and Google Play topped $277 million on Christmas Day. Thanks to consumers who had just been gifted new devices and gift cards, spending rose 11% compared to last year, and games were the biggest winner.

The problem with Apple Arcade? It’s just not that special [Opinion]

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Apple-Arcade
Can Arcade ever become the service Apple promised?
Photo: Apple

Apple Arcade’s slate of more than 100 games for $4.99 a month looks like one of the best deals in gaming at first glance. But Apple’s new game subscription service fails to live up to the expectations of many iPhone and iPad owners.

That’s not because the games are bad. Or because there are hidden fees we weren’t expecting. It’s because Cupertino billed Apple Arcade as something special … and it just isn’t.

Massively popular League of Legends on its way to mobile

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League of Legends
The game has been in development for over a year.
Photo: Riot Games

League of Legends remains one of the biggest games on the planet, with an estimated 115 million players worldwide. And it could be about to get even bigger as it expands its reach to mobile.

Tencent and Riot Games have reportedly been working on the port for over a year. But you probably won’t get your hands on it in 2019.