On Friday, Apple officially launched the fourth-generation Apple TV, which for the first time included an App Store.
While Apple includes a list of featured apps, there are currently no other methods for discoverability, and users can't browse categories or Top Charts to find other Apple TV Apps that haven't been explicitly featured.
Currently, the Apple TV App Store only shows what's featured. If your game isn't featured, it effectively doesn't exist. There's no way to browse genres, top lists don't exist (this arguably might be a good thing), and finding something that isn't featured requires typing its name in the search field. Siri search doesn't work on apps (yet?) so the amount of friction to download a game like Highway Rider which didn't make the feature cut is not only incredible but also has resulted in three sales. (Well, make that four, as I bought it.)
After some digging, SlideToPlay'sJeff Scott discovered that Apple was already publishing Apple TV top lists, even if they weren't yet exposed anywhere. Scott has now compiled a realtime list of the top overall Apple TV apps as well as individual category lists for both free and paid apps.
At the time of this writing, the overall top 10 apps include:
Top 10 Paid
1 - Beat Sports (Apple TV Only) 2 - SimpleX - for Plex (Apple TV Only) 3 - Galaxy on Fire™ - Manticore RISING (Apple TV Only) 4 - Lumino City (+ Universal) 5 - Alto's Adventure (+ Universal) 6 - Does not Commute TV (Apple TV Only) 7 - Battle Supremacy: Evolution (+ Universal) 8 - Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved (+ Universal) 9 - Shoot The Zombirds (+ Universal) 10 - Oceanhorn ™ (+ Universal)
Top 10 Free
1 - Rayman Adventures (Apple TV Only) 2 - Crossy Road - Endless Arcade Hopper (+ Universal) 3 - HBO NOW (+ Universal) 4 - The Nat Geo TV (+ Universal) 5 - FOX NOW (+ Universal) 6 - SHOWTIME (+ Universal) 7 - HISTORY (+ Universal) 8 - CNNgo (Apple TV Only) 9 - CBS (+ Universal) 10 - Asphalt 8: Airborne (+ Universal)
Games make up the majority of the top spots in the Top Paid listings, while media apps dominate the Top Free listings. At the moment, Jeff Scott reports there are presently 996 Apple TV apps in the App Store. The full list on SlideToPlay covers the top 200, as well as the breakdown within different categories.
Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app.
Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
Sunday January 19, 2025 6:58 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple on late Saturday removed TikTok from the App Store in the U.S., and it has now explained why it was required to take this action.
Last year, the U.S. passed a law that required Chinese company ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok due to potential national security risks, or else the platform would be banned. That law went into effect today, and companies like Apple and Google...
Thursday January 16, 2025 6:45 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple today adjusted estimated trade-in values for select iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models in the U.S., according to its website.
Some values increased, while others decreased. The changes were not too significant, with most values rising or dropping by $5 to $50.
We have outlined some examples below:
Device
New Value
Old Value
iPhone 15 Pro Max
Up to $630
U ...
Thursday January 16, 2025 12:39 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple provided the third beta of iOS 18.3 to developers today, and while the betas have so far been light on new features, the third beta makes some major changes to Notification Summaries and also tweaks a few other features.
Notification Summary Changes
Apple made multiple changes to Notification Summaries in response to complaints about inaccurate summaries of news headlines.
For...
Saturday January 18, 2025 10:28 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 19 will not drop support for any iPhone models, according to French website iPhoneSoft.fr.
The report cited a source who said iOS 19 will be compatible with any iPhone that can run iOS 18, which would mean the following models:
iPhone 16
iPhone 16 Plus
iPhone 16 Pro
iPhone 16 Pro Max
iPhone 15
iPhone 15 Plus
iPhone 15 Pro
iPhone 15 Pro Max
iPhone 14
iPhon...
Sunday January 19, 2025 8:11 am PST by Joe Rossignol
After a four-year wait, a new AirTag is finally expected to launch in 2025. Below, we recap rumored upgrades for the accessory.
A few months ago, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple was aiming to release the AirTag 2 around the middle of 2025. While he did not offer a more specific timeframe, that means the AirTag 2 could be announced by the end of June.
The original AirTag was announced...
Friday January 17, 2025 3:38 pm PST by Juli Clover
For the last several months, we've been hearing rumors about a redesigned version of the iPhone 17 that Apple might call the iPhone 17 "Air," or something along those lines. It's going to replace the iPhone 17 Plus as Apple's fourth iPhone option, and it will be offered alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max.
We know the iPhone 17 Air is going to be super slim, but...
Monday January 20, 2025 9:01 am PST by Joe Rossignol
A new iPhone SE is widely rumored to launch this year, and the device has potentially been confirmed today by known leaker Evan Blass.
In a private social media post, Blass shared an image of what appears to be source code mentioning an iPhone SE (4th Gen), which casts doubt on the alternative "iPhone 16E" name rumored for the device. However, the name in the source code could be a...
What, so the category tab is missing? Apple will add it, it's probably missing since there isn't a ton of apps. They don't even need to update for that.
I own it, it's insanely fast, insanely smooth, and leaps and bounds better than the old one. For the love of God, I never had to do TV remote codes.... That's magical. Siri works well, it's easier to find content across apps.
The Netflix app isn't fully baked, but that isn't Apple. And Siri cannot control music, or find any to add. That's missing.
But other than that, it streams faster, better, navigating is leaps and bounds better, and it's just so smooth.
You people groaning don't own it, and you sure as hell are part of the **** show In this world.
I own the atv 2&3 (retired the 2) and a chrome cast and a fire TV. Chrome cast sucks (as does all miracast devices, AirPlay just rules) and the Fire TV search only does Amazon stuff, and is nowhere near as fast and smooth. The Siri controller is really the way to navigate tv. Apple nailed that.
It's a huge promising product with a lot of power. It's almost perfect right now.
There was a screen shot at the September event that clearly shows top charts and category options. Maybe Apple is waiting for more apps to be available to turn it on?
I have my complaints about this device by my god it's only been on sale for a few days. I think it's silly for developers to be freaking out about discoverability after only a couple days on sale. If a month from now we still don't have a good way to search for apps then yeah complain away.
They need to sort this quickly otherwise developers aren't going to bother at all and go elsewhere.
I guess a featured only section does encourage higher production values but the visibility is so poor that an indie developer is going to drown without a 5-figure marketing budget.
As a developer with a tvOS app in the store, this is totally unacceptable. My app effectively does not exist in the store unless you search for it.
Why should I even bother? I am assuming once they add categories that they will be sorted by newest -- meaning that the launch apps will just be very far back on the list.
