Summary created by Smart Answers AI
In summary:
- Apple announced its 2026 Design Awards winners across six categories, recognizing 12 exceptional apps and games for outstanding design and innovation.
- Macworld reports that winners span diverse categories including Inclusivity, Social Impact, Innovation, Interaction, Visuals and Graphics, and Delight and Fun.
- Award-winning selections like NBA Live Games, Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition, and Primary News help users discover high-quality software across Apple platforms including Vision Pro.
Next week’s WWDC get-together will focus on Apple’s relationship with the app developer community. It’s apt, therefore, that the company has just announced the winners of its yearly app design awards.
As revealed in a press release on its Newsroom site, Apple has divided the awards into the same six categories as last year, and singled out one app and one game for recognition in each. It also lists four further finalists for each category, for a theoretical total of 36 noteworthy apps and games. (In fact, some apps appear in more than one category so the total is a little lower.)
The award-winning apps and games can be for any one, or several, of Apple’s software platforms. You’ll notice lots of iPhone screenshots on the press release, but the company also recognises software for the iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and even Vision Pro. In fact, a couple of the winners are only available on the Mac and one, Primary: News in Depth, is strictly for Vision Pro.
So, if you’re struggling to sift the wheat from the chaff on Apple’s bloated app stores, you could do a lot worse than check out the following offerings:
Delight and Fun
- Winners: grug (app) and Is This Seat Taken? (game)
- Finalists: Blippo+, Metaballs, BALL x PIT, and PowerWash Simulator
Inclusivity
- Winners: Guitar Wiz (app) and Pine Hearts (game)
- Finalists: Hearing Buddy, Structured, Sago Mini Jinja’s Garden, and Sid Meier’s Civilization VII
Innovation
Interaction
Social Impact
Visuals and Graphics
Apple says the winners will be further recognised at WWDC 2026 next week.
