Apple has officially announced its 2025 App Store Winners. It showcased the 17 best apps for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Vision Pro.
The company also published the most downloaded apps and games on the iPhone and iPad, which are categorized into free and paid lists, as well as Apple Arcade. These will give a clear view of what users loved most this year.
Top Free iPhone Apps With ChatGPT on the Lead
OpenAI’s ChatGPT earned the top spot as the most downloadable free iPhone app. This could mean there is a growing interest in AI tools among mobile users.
Following closely behind is Threads, Meta’s upstart rival to X, formerly Twitter, while the line-up is completed with TikTok, Google, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, and Google Gemini. The combination of AI and social media applications with Google services indicates what is most in demand and popular among users.
Most Popular iPad Apps: Streaming Dominates
The most downloaded free iPad apps of 2025 focus on streaming and productivity: YouTube tops the list, followed by ChatGPT, Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video. Next in popularity are TikTok, Google Chrome, GoodNotes, Canva, and HBO Max.
Notably, Instagram didn’t crack the iPad top ten, which perhaps says more about how much streaming and productivity tools dominate tablet use compared with social media engagement.
Paid Apps on iPhone and iPad
In the case of paid apps, productivity, creativity, and lifestyle tooling were favored by iPhone users. The top ten were HotSchedules, Shadowrocket, Procreate Pocket, AnkiMobile Flashcards, Paprika Recipe Manager, SkyView®, TonalEnergy Tuner, AutoSleep, Forest, and RadarScope.
While in the iPad section, creative and professional apps dominated. Procreate, Procreate Dreams, forScore, ToonSquid, Nomad Sculpt, Shadowrocket, AnkiMobile Flashcards, Bluebeam Revu, Teach Your Monster to Read, and Feather were leading.
Top Games: Free and Paid Favorites
According to TechRadar, the top free iPhone games in 2025 are as follows:
- “Block Blast!”
- “Fortnite”
- “Roblox”
- “Township”
- “Pokémon TCG Pocket”
- “Royal Kingdom”
- “Clash Royale”
- “Vita Mahjong”
- “Whiteout Survival”
- “Last War: Survival”
The top games for iPad are as follows:
- “Roblox”
- “Block Blast!”
- “Fortnite”
- “Perfect Tidy”
- “Magic Tiles 3”
- “Mini Games: Calm & Chill”
- “Goods Puzzle: Sort Challenge”
- “hole.io”
- “Subway Surfers”
- “Township”
Paid games were also in strong demand. For iPhone users, the following have been popular:
- “Minecraft: Dream it”
- “Build it!”
- “Balatro”
- “Heads Up!”
- “Plague Inc.”
- “Geometry Dash”
- “Bloons TD 6”
- “Stardew Valley”
- “Papa’s Freezeria To Go!”
- “Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp”
- “Red’s First Flight”
iPad players enjoyed the following games the most:
- “Minecraft”
- “Geometry Dash”
- “Stardew Valley”
- “Balatro”
- “Bloons TD 6”
- “Plague Inc.”
- “Animal Crossing”
- “Poppy Playtime Chapter 3”
- “Purple Place”
- “Papa’s Sushiria To Go!”
Apple Arcade For Gamers’ Favorite Games
Apple Arcade also announced the best headliners for 2025, comprised of such games as:
- “NFL Retro Bowl ’26”
- “NBA 2K25 Arcade Edition”
- “Balatro+”
- “Snake.io+”
- “Sneaky Sasquatch”
- “Hello Kitty Island Adventure”
- “Fruit Ninja Classic+”
- “Bloons TD 6+”
- “PGA TOUR Pro Golf”
- “Solitaire”
Originally published on Tech Times
