Apple Announces App Store Awards 2024 Winners; Top Apps Include Kino and Lightroom

Apple has announced the results of its App Store Awards for 2024, revealing the winners and finalists selected across several app and game categories. This year, two apps in the photo and video category won the top Mac app and top iPhone app contests, while an app designed for musicians was picked as the iPad app of the year. Meanwhile, Apple has also announced six winners and six finalists in the Cultural Impact category, while revealing its top Apple Arcade titles.

Kino, Moises and Lightroom Picked as Apple's Apps of the Year

Lux Optics' Kino, which was launched earlier this year as a dedicated camera with support for grading and film presets, has bagged the iPhone app of the year. Meanwhile, Runna (an app designed to provide personalised training for runners), and holiday or travel planning app Tripsy were the finalists in this category.

Kino beat Runna and Tripsy to win the iPhone app of the year award
Photo Credit: Apple

The Mac app of the year for 2024 is Adobe Lightroom, the widely used image processing and organisation software from the US company. It beat 3D design app Shapr3D and task management software OmniFocus 4.

On the other hand, Disney's What If...? An Immersive Story is Apple's Vision Pro app of the year — it was up against JigSpace and the NBA app for the mixed reality headset. Raja V's Lumy, an app for photographers that reveals sunrise, sunset and golden hour, was the Apple Watch app of the year.

Apple picked Moises, an app designed for musicians that can strip out percussion and other instruments from popular tracks, was chosen as the iPad app of the year. Meanwhile, Savage Interactive's Procreate Dreams as well as Bluey: Let's Play (Budge Studios) emerged as runner ups.

This year, the F1 TV app was selected as the Apple TV app of the year, over runner ups Dropout and Zoom — the latter uses a connected iPhone to allow users to join meetings.

AFK Journey is Apple's iPhone game of the year
Photo Credit: Apple

Apple also selected AFK Journey, an increasing popular fantasy role playing game as its iPhone app of the year, which was competing with The WereCleaner and Cognosphere's latest title, Zenless Zone Zero. Supercell's Squad Busters beat Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Mirage and Gameloft's Disney Speedstorm to become the iPad game of the year.

On the other hand, slapstick platformer Thank Goodness You're Here was selected as the Mac game of the year, while Frostpunk 2 and Stray emerged as finalists in this category. Puddle's AR game THRASHER: Arcade Odyssey was the top game for the Apple Vision Pro, while poker-inspired Balatro+ is the Apple Arcade game of the year.

Six apps and games — DailyArt, Do You Really Want to Know 2, EF Hello, NYT Games, Oko, and The Wreck — were picked as winners in Apple's Cultural Impact awards. Arco, Brawl Stars, BetterSleep, Partiful, Pinterest, and The Bear were the other finalists that received an honourable mention from the company.