🏆 Apple has unveiled its nominees for the best App Store apps of 2025
👍 There are 45 finalists across 12 different categories
📱 They encompass everything from iPhone and iPad to Vision Pro and Apple TV options
🥇 Apple also selected 12 apps for their cultural impact in its own special category
Apple has unveiled its nominees for the 2025 App Store Awards as it attempts to crown the best apps for this year.
According to an Apple Newsroom post, the company has selected 45 finalists across 12 different categories designed to showcase “exceptional experiences that inspire users to accomplish more, reimagine their daily workflows, and push creative boundaries.”
The categories are mostly split by platform, with separate categories for iPhone, iPad, Mac and so on, which are then broken down into specific nominees for apps and games.
iPhone App of the Year Finalists
Apple believes the three above apps are the cream of the crop for iPhone in 2025.
BandLab is an app designed to help musicians create tracks and share them with their community, while LADDER is a workout app that serves you with fresh, new workout plans each week.
Tiimo is an app that uses AI as a helping hand to assist you in time management, planning and helping you balance out tasks.
iPhone Game of the Year Finalists
Apple continues its push into gaming, and has chosen three iPhone games that offer different experiences.
Capbybara Go! takes players on a quirky adventure as a lovable critter, Pokémon TCG Pocket makes collecting and playing Pokémon cards even better, and Thronefall combines thrilling defense battles with minimalist controls.
iPad App of the Year Finalists
When it comes to iPad, the three above candidates are the best you’ll find this year, according to Apple.
Detail is a video editing app that uses AI to automatically edit your videos, and you can use its UI to create edits based on prompts.
Graintouch is an art app that’s designed to give you as faithful of an experience as possible with realistic brushes, materials and inks.
Meanwhile, Structured is a productivity planner that provides a very easy interface to help you make the most of your valuable time.
Mac App of the Year finalists
The Mac app choices certainly lean toward the more creative side of Apple’s desktop and laptop ecosystem, as demonstrated by the inclusion of Acorn in the list of this year’s finalists.
It’s a photo editing app that provides pro-grade tools and non-destructive editing effects, which seems like a good choice for taking full advantage of the beefy Mac hardware.
Essayist once again leans into Apple’s general theme of recommending apps that are designed to help you plan your time. It’s a writing app that provides automatic formatting, a very powerful reference manager, and support for the most common citation styles.
Under My Roof is designed to help you keep track of anything to do with your home, such as any renovations or repairs you may have going on, while also allowing you to keep track of documents and catalog your possessions.
Apple Vision Pro Apps of the Year
If you’ve picked up Apple’s XR headset, then the above apps are ones you should probably take notice of.
Camo Studio is a very useful one for folks who record and stream videos, as it provides handy scene controls, an easy sharing interface, an overlay and powerful editing effects for all your content creation needs.
D-Day: The Camera Soldier is more of a first-person documentary than an app, as it provides the wearer with an immersive portrayal of the Normandy lands through the eyes of a combat cameraman.
And, if you want to explore the world, then Explore POV seems to be the best for doing so by Apple’s reckoning. With it, you can enjoy a series of immersive videos that put you right at the center of some of the world’s most beautiful scenes.
Apple Watch App of the Year Finalists
For Apple’s wearable sector, two of its nominees sit in the fitness category, with GO Club as a step counter that also provides reminders to keep you active and hydrated. Strava, the other nominee, perhaps needs no introduction as it’s a very popular app for runners that shows their progress and routes, plus more besides.
Pro Camera by Moment is the oddball out of the three, as it allows you to use your Apple Watch to take photos from your watch with some useful controls for fine-tuning to get the perfect shot.
Apple TV App of the Year
The nominations for the Apple TV category prove the variation of the device, with each of them encompassing a different category.
HBO Max has been cited as the best streaming app for the platform, with Apple praising its quality series and array of accessibility options.
PBS Kids Video takes the win if you’re after an option for your little ones to watch, with a litany of child-friendly shows and entertainment.
The final nominee is Super Farming Boy 4K, a game that’s a blend of action, puzzling and adventure, complete with farming sim elements, proving you can even use Apple’s capable streaming box for casual gaming.
Cultural impact finalists
As well as the platform-specific awards, Apple also provided a further 12 nominees for apps recognized for their cultural impact:
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Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.