Apple Announces the App Store Games of the Year 2024
Balatro+ and Thank Goodness You're Here! are recognized among the best gaming experiences on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Arcade.
Posted 13 hours ago
As part of the company’s 2024 App Store awards, Apple has recognized a handful of mobile and AR games as the best available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Arcade, and Apple Vision Pro.
As announced on the Apple website’s official blog, the awards aim to celebrate “apps and games that helped users ignite their creativity, achieve new milestones, and cherish everyday moments with family and friends.”
Here’s the full list of gaming winners in the App Store awards 2024:
- iPhone Game of the Year: AFK Journey
- iPad Game of the Year: Squad Busters
- Mac Game of the Year: Thank Goodness You’re Here!
- Apple Vision Pro Game of the Year: Thrasher: Arcade Odyssey
- Apple Arcade Game of the Year: Balatro+
©Apple
Here's what Apple said in its press release regarding each of the winners:
"AFK Journey delivers action-packed, tactical adventures and rich storylines to players on iPhone. Squad Busters combines competition with feel-good fun through exciting multiplayer gameplay, and Thank Goodness You’re Here! brings nonstop laughter with fun and silly skits. And on Apple Arcade, Balatro+ reinvents the rules of card games with every new hand."
Balatro could be in for a fruitful awards season, as it has also been nominated at several other shows including The Game Awards 2024. To play it on Apple devices, you’ll need to be an Apple Arcade subscriber. Apple Arcade is Apple’s game subscription service that grants unlimited access to a curated selection of games for a monthly fee. You can grab an email Apple gift card from Walmart via our affiliate link here.
Outside of the core gaming category, two other games received nominations within the Cultural Impact section of the App Store awards. The Wreck is an interactive narrative that renders the protagonist’s inner thoughts and fears, while Do You Really Want to Know 2 is a text adventure that delves into the experience of living and dating with HIV.
Apple Arcade has had several recent additions, which you can check out in our First Look features. Talking Tom Blast Park mixes on-rails shooting with runner gameplay as players defend an amusement park from naughty Racoonz. Boggle: Arcade Edition adapts the word-based board game, tasking players to spell as many words as possible from a grid of letters. Wheel of Fortune Daily takes the setup from the well-loved TV show and offers a new world puzzle every day for players to figure out, starting only with the letters RSTLNE.
To give them or any of the App Store award winners a go, pick up an Apple gift card via our Walmart affiliate link.