Apple Picks the 2021 App Store Award Winners, Highlighting the Best Apps of the Year

Apple today shared its 2021 App Store Award winners, highlighting the 15 best apps and games selected by Apple's global App Store editorial team. The top apps were chosen for their quality, innovative technology, creative design, and positive cultural impact.

app store awards 2021

"The developers who won App Store Awards in 2021 harnessed their own drive and vision to deliver the best apps and games of the year -- sparking the creativity and passion of millions of users around the world," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "From self-taught indie coders to inspiring leaders building global businesses, these standout developers innovated with Apple technology, with many helping to foster the profound sense of togetherness we needed this year."

Toca Life World, from Toca Boca, was named Apple's iPhone App of the Year. Designed for children, the app allows players to create their own worlds and bring their stories to life.

Apple's iPad App of the Year is LumaFusion, a popular mobile video editing app. It is recognized as one of the best ways to edit video on an iPhone or an iPad, with a wide range of editing tools and effects.

Multiplayer online battle arena game League of Legends: Wild Rift won the title of iPhone Game of the Year for its online play, and MARVEL Future Revolution was Apple's pick for iPad Game of the Year.

Apple picked a Mac app and game of the year, an Apple TV app of the year, and an Apple Arcade game of the year, with details below.

  • Mac App of the Year: Craft Docs and Notes Editor, from Luki Labs Limited.
  • Mac Game of the Year: Myst, from Cyan.
  • Apple TV App of the Year: DAZN Sports Streaming, from DAZN Group.
  • Apple TV Game of the Year: Space Marshals 3, from Pixelbite.
  • Apple Watch App of the Year: Carrot Weather, from Grailr.
  • Apple Arcade Game of the Year: Fantasian, from Mistwalker.

Apple also highlighted "Connection" as the trend of the year, recognizing a selection of apps and games that brought people together in meaningful ways. Apps acknowledged in this category include Among Us!, Bumble, Canva, EatOkra, and Peanut.

Each App or Game of the Year winner will receive a physical App Store award that's modeled after the design of the App Store logo. Each award is created from 100 percent recycled aluminum and it has the name of the winner engraved on the side.

Popular Stories

M5 MacBook Pro

Apple Announces New 14-Inch MacBook Pro With M5 Chip

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:07 am PDT by
Apple today updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with its new M5 chip, which is also available in updated iPad Pro and Vision Pro models. In addition, the base 14-inch MacBook Pro can now be configured with up to 4TB of storage on Apple's online store, whereas the previous model maxed out at 2TB. However, the maximum amount of unified RAM available for this model remains 32GB. Like...
Apple iPad Pro hero M5

Apple Debuts New iPad Pro With M5 Chip, Faster Charging, and More

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:16 am PDT by
Apple today announced the next-generation iPad Pro, featuring the custom-designed M5, C1X, and N1 chips. The M5 chip has up to a 10-core CPU, with four performance cores and six efficiency cores. It features a next-generation GPU with Neural Accelerator in each core, allowing the new iPad Pro to deliver up to 3.5x the AI performance than the previous model, and a third-generation ray-tracing ...
apple oct 2024 mac tease

Apple Expected to Announce These Two to Three Products 'This Week'

Sunday October 12, 2025 7:05 am PDT by
Apple plans to announce new products "this week," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple's "Mac Your Calendars" teaser last October In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said the products set to be updated this week include the iPad Pro, Vision Pro, and "likely" the base 14-inch MacBook Pro, with all three likely to receive a spec bump with Apple's next-generation M5 chip. Gurman...
maxresdefault

Here's Everything Apple Announced Today

Wednesday October 15, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We didn't get a second fall event this year, but Apple did unveil updated products with a series of press releases that went out today. The M5 chip made an appearance in new MacBook Pro, Vision Pro, and iPad Pro models. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up our coverage and highlighted the main feature changes for each device below. MacBook Pro M5...
joz macbook tease

Apple Teases Upcoming M5 MacBook Pro Launch: 'Something Powerful is Coming'

Tuesday October 14, 2025 11:59 am PDT by
Apple marketing chief Greg Joswiak today teased the launch of an upcoming product, saying "something powerful is coming" on social media. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. A short animation accompanying Joswiak's teaser reveals a brief glimpse of a MacBook Pro along with the words "coming soon." The shape of the MacBook Pro is a V, which is the Roman numeral...
airpods max 2024 colors

AirPods Max 2: Everything We Know So Far

Tuesday October 14, 2025 8:43 am PDT by
Apple's AirPods Max have now been available for almost five years, so what do we know about the second-generation version? According to Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the new AirPods Max will be lighter than the current ones, but exactly how much is as yet known. The current AirPods Max weigh 0.85 pounds (386.2 grams), excluding the charging case, making it one of the heavier...
Vision Pro M5 Announcement

Apple Updates Vision Pro With M5 Chip, Dual Knit Band, and 120Hz Support

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:14 am PDT by
Apple today updated the Vision Pro headset with its next-generation M5 chip for faster performance, and a more comfortable Dual Knit Band. The M5 chip has a 10-core CPU, a 10-core GPU with Neural Accelerators, and a 16-core Neural Engine, and we have confirmed the Vision Pro still has 16GB of RAM. With the M5 chip, the Vision Pro offers faster performance and longer battery life compared...
macbook pro blue

Apple's M5 MacBook Pro Imminent: What to Expect

Tuesday October 14, 2025 4:35 pm PDT by
Apple is going to launch a new version of the MacBook Pro as soon as tomorrow, so we thought we'd go over what to expect from Apple's upcoming Mac. M5 Chip The MacBook Pro will be one of the first new devices to use the next-generation M5 chip, which will replace the M4 chip. The M5 is built on TSMC's more advanced 3-nanometer process, and it will bring speed and efficiency improvements. ...
HomePod mini and Apple TV

Apple's Next Rumored Products: New HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and More

Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year. The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
MacBook Pro M5 Screen

New MacBook Pro Does Not Include a Charger in the Box in Europe

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:59 am PDT by
The new 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 chip does not include a charger in the box in European countries, including the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, and others, according to Apple's online store. In the U.S. and all other countries outside of Europe, the new MacBook Pro comes with Apple's 70W USB-C Power Adapter, but European customers miss out....

Top Rated Comments

ethanwa79 Avatar
51 months ago
Myst, an update of a 30 year old Mac game that I remember playing when I was 14 when it was NEW, is the 2021 Mac Game of the Year?

That just goes to show the sad sad state of affairs of gaming on the Mac still to this day. ?
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
51 months ago

The results are based on the opinions of Apple's global App Store editorial team. I bet if the results were based on app users opinions the results would be totally different.
It's probably all chosen by how much $ they generated for Apple.

Money talks.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
laptech Avatar
51 months ago
The results are based on the opinions of Apple's global App Store editorial team. I bet if the results were based on app users opinions the results would be totally different.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
incoherent_1 Avatar
51 months ago

Myst, an update of a 30 year old Mac game that I remember playing when I was 14 when it was NEW, is the 2021 Mac Game of the Year?

That just goes to show the sad sad state of affairs of gaming on the Mac still to this day. ?
Don’t worry. Next year we may be lucky enough to get a port of the original Wolfenstein :D
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
radamo Avatar
51 months ago

Myst, an update of a 30 year old Mac game that I remember playing when I was 14 when it was NEW, is the 2021 Mac Game of the Year?

That just goes to show the sad sad state of affairs of gaming on the Mac still to this day. ?
The fact that it still gets them $30 (after so many years) in revenue per sale makes it GOTY!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
yabeweb Avatar
51 months ago

Myst, an update of a 30 year old Mac game that I remember playing when I was 14 when it was NEW, is the 2021 Mac Game of the Year?

That just goes to show the sad sad state of affairs of gaming on the Mac still to this day. ?
Lots of people did not get to play Myst when it was released, many people were not even born when it was released.

I remember playing it in a very OLD Mac, the graphic was amazing for the times (well sure they were almost pictures...)

The point is, the fact that it is still a great game (new visuals of course) means KUDOS to the developer, they

Not a sad state, but a timeless game.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)