Apple on Thursday unveiled its annual list of App Store Award winners, continuing its tradition of highlighting the year’s most exceptional apps and games. For 2025, the honors reflect not just creativity and craftsmanship, but a growing trend: many of the top apps now rely on AI to enhance user experience.
The iPhone App of the Year went to Tiimo, a visual AI planner that transforms simple to-do lists into structured timelines. Using AI, Tiimo breaks down tasks, estimates the time needed for each step, and generates realistic daily plans. The iPhone Game of the Year was awarded to Pokémon TCG Pocket, a digital take on the popular Pokémon trading card game.
Though Apple once again avoided declaring an AI-specific app as “App of the Year,” AI’s influence was unmistakable across multiple winners.
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On iPad, Detail won iPad App of the Year with its “Auto Edit” AI feature that handles silence removal, zoom cuts, and automatically generates titles and captions. In the Cultural Impact category, apps like StoryGraph and Be My Eyes stood out for their AI-driven recommendations and accessibility solutions. StoryGraph uses machine learning to recommend books based on reading habits, while Be My Eyes offers AI-powered visual descriptions to assist blind and low-vision users.
The Apple Watch App of the Year, Strava, also includes an AI assistant that turns workout data into personalized insights.
Apple named winners across all major platforms, iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Vision Pro, and Apple Arcade, marking a diverse showcase of global innovation. The company first selected 45 finalists in November before narrowing the list down to 17 final winners.
2025 App Store Award Winners:
- iPhone App of the Year: Tiimo
- iPhone Game of the Year: Pokémon TCG Pocket
- iPad App of the Year: Detail
- iPad Game of the Year: DREDGE
- Mac App of the Year: Essayist
- Mac Game of the Year: Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition
- Apple Arcade Game of the Year: WHAT THE CLASH?
- Apple Vision Pro App of the Year: Explore POV
- Apple Vision Pro Game of the Year: Porta Nubi
- Apple Watch App of the Year: Strava
- Apple TV App of the Year: HBO Max
- Cultural Impact Winners:
- Chants of Sennaar
- Be My Eyes
- Focus Friend (also Google Play’s App of the Year)
- Art of Fauna
- despelote
- StoryGraph
- Chants of Sennaar
These selections highlight a year where AI quietly but meaningfully elevated user experiences across creativity, productivity, wellness, accessibility, and entertainment.
