‘Cultural impact’ takes center stage as Apple announces 2022 App Store Awards

Apple on Tuesday announced this year’s 16 winners of its annual App Store Awards. Quick-hitting social network BeReal was named as the iPhone App of the Year, while Electronic Arts took the prestigious awards for iPhone Game of the Year with Apex Legends Mobile.

The yearly announcement singles out the best, most engaging, and most culturally significant software released for Apple’s main platforms across the previous 12 months. The company names an outstanding app and game for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV respectively, plus an outstanding app only for the Apple Watch. (There are games for the Apple Watch and have been a few excellent examples over the years such as Lifeline, but it’s a far more limited category than the others covered.)

Apex Legends Mobile, presumably being played before the iPhone 14 Pro was released.Apple/Electronic Arts

In previous years Apple has concluded by naming one or more trends for the year’s outstanding releases (in 2021 it was “connection,” and in 2020 “helpfulness”) but this year took a slightly different approach. Instead, the firm commended five apps for various forms of cultural impact. A new category was also added for 2022, with League of Legends Esports Manager named the inaugural China Game of the Year.

Here is the full list of App Store Awards 2022 winners:

iPhone App of the Year: BeRealiPad App of the Year: GoodNotes 5Mac App of the Year: MacFamilyTree 10Apple TV App of the Year: ViXApple Watch App of the Year: Gentler StreakiPhone Game of the Year: Apex Legends MobileiPad Game of the Year: MoncageMac Game of the Year: InscryptionApple TV Game of the Year: El HijoApple Arcade Game of the Year: Wylde FlowersChina Game of the Year: League of Legends Esports ManagerCultural Impact Winners: How We Feel, Dot’s Home, Locket Widget, Waterllama, and Inua – A Story in Ice and Time
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