Apple Shares the 'Best of 2018' Highlighting Top Apps, Games, Music, TV Shows, Movies and More

Apple today presented its best of 2018 lists, highlighting the apps, games, music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, books, and audiobooks that "shaped entertainment and culture around the world this year."

Apple shares its top lists for the App Store, iTunes Store, and more each and every year, and this year's lists are available via the Apple Newsroom.

applebestapps2018
According to Apple, the App Trend of the Year is "Self-Care," featuring wellness apps like Fabulous, Shine, and Calm. The Game Trend of the Year was, unsurprisingly, "Battle Royale-style gaming" so named because of the popularity of apps like Fortnite and PUBG.

Apple's other top app and game lists are below, with Apple offering up separate winners for the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Mac.

  • iPhone App of the Year - Procreate Pocket
  • iPhone Game of the Year - Donut County
  • iPad App of the Year - Froggipedia
  • iPad Game of the Year - Gorogoa
  • Mac App of the Year - Pixelmator Pro
  • Mac Game of the Year - The Gardens Between
  • Apple TV App of the Year - Sweat
  • Apple TV Game of the Year - Alto's Odyssey

Apple named Drake as the top artist of the year, while "I Like It" from Cardi B was named the song of the year. Kacey Musgraves' "Golden Hour" album was named album of then year, while Juice WRLD took the breakout artist of the year title.

As for movies, Apple named "Annihilation," "Black Panther," "Crazy Rich Asians," and "Eighth Grade" as some of the best movies of the year, while "The Americans," "Atlanta," "The Good Place," and "The Handmaid's Tale" were named some of the best TV shows.

Apple's full Newsroom article has a complete list of the winners for each of its services, along with top charts and other data that's worth checking out if you're looking for music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, books, and apps you might have missed in 2018.

Popular Stories

Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Leak Reveals All-New Design

Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by
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...
2024 App Store Awards

Apple Explains Why It Removed TikTok From the App Store in the U.S.

Sunday January 19, 2025 6:58 am PST by
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...
2024 iPhone Boxes Feature

Apple Changes Trade-In Values for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and More

Thursday January 16, 2025 6:45 am PST by
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 ...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.3 Beta 3

Thursday January 16, 2025 12:39 pm PST by
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...
iOS 19 Roundup Feature

iOS 19 Rumored to Be Compatible With These iPhones

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:28 am PST by
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...
airtag 4 pack blue

AirTag 2 Launching This Year With These 3 New Features

Sunday January 19, 2025 8:11 am PST by
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...
iPhone SE Dynamic Island Majin Bu

iPhone SE 4 Leak Shows Dynamic Island, Casts Doubt on Rumored 'iPhone 16E' Name

Monday January 20, 2025 9:01 am PST by
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...
iPad Pro vs iPhone 17 Air Feature

Here's How Thin the iPhone 17 Air Might Be

Friday January 17, 2025 3:38 pm PST by
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...

Top Rated Comments

deeddawg Avatar
80 months ago
Procreate Pocket sounds like a fertility tracking app.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
KPandian1 Avatar
80 months ago
The "Good Place" is a very deep show, well portrayed by seemingly shallow characters. The one NBC show worth its time.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lunarworks Avatar
80 months ago
The "Good Place" is a very deep show, well portrayed by seemingly shallow characters. The one NBC show worth its time.
My wife and I started watching The Good Place on Netflix last month, after seeing a few GIFs of it (I know), and now we're almost caught up with the current season.

I can't say enough good things about it. Such a fresh concept, compared to all the standard sitcoms out there.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MakeAppleAwesomeAgain Avatar
80 months ago
Ladies and gentleman, iPad app of the year:


Froggipedia, an engaging, interactive, powerful constructive learning Apple AR which helps explore and discover the unique life cycle and intricate anatomical details of a frog.
What’s a computer?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
R10k Avatar
80 months ago
Pixelmator Pro isn’t worthy of much attention...

But Annihilation is an amazing movie.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
charleswhalley Avatar
80 months ago
Bit of a snooze fest on the Mac this year, then?

Pixelmator Pro is hardly any different to Pixelmator, which itself is an old app now.
Snoozefest - that is an understatement. Looking forward to the highlights of hardware - oh silly me - there aren't any!!!!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)