Apple's top apps of 2020 highlight quarantine life
The winners include Zoom, Disney+, 'Genshin Impact' and 'Pokémon Go.'
Along with its top podcasts and books of the year, Apple has revealed the winners of its App Store Best of 2020 awards. The company named an app and game for each for its core devices, along with an Apple Arcade title and a few apps that best exemplified this year's trend of helpfulness. Unsurprisingly, there was a focus on apps and games that reflect our quarantine life.
Apple's iPhone picks were Wakeout (billed as "exercise for busy people") and Genshin Impact, and it opted for Zoom and Legends of Runeterra on iPad. Its Mac choices are Fantastical and Disco Elysium, and for Apple TV it plumped for Disney+ and Dandara Trials of Fear. Apple named Endel as its Apple Watch app of 2020, and its Apple Arcade pick is Sneaky Sasquatch.
The company noted there was a significant "trend towards helpfulness" this year by developers. With that in mind, it recognized five additional apps. Among them are Shine, which added a section "dedicated to the intersectionality of mental health and Black lives," and United Nations World Food Programme’s ShareTheMeal.
Apple also commended Niantic for adapting Pokémon Go's gameplay so people could still play amid stay-at-home measures. The other two apps it recognized are Caribu, for bringing many more games and books to its video calling platform, and Explain Everything Whiteboard, for bolstering remote learning with a cloud-based collaboration tool.
These apps and games "proved to be essential for making life easier, healthier and more connected this year," Apple said. For the first time, the company made a physical award it's sending to the developers behind them. The award is made from recycled aluminum and it features the App Store logo on one side and the winner's name on the other.