Biggest bites at the Apple this year
Stock clerks at the App Store and iTunes tally the most popular items of the past 12 months
Apple has unveiled its 2017 “charts and trends”, celebrating the most popular apps, music and movies at the App Store, Apple Music and iTunes.
The folks responsible for those three online retail outlets say it was “a huge year” for entertainment as they continued to introduce new content from indie artists and developers.
“Apple brings customers a diverse breadth of entertainment content, while giving artists and creative people a global platform to express themselves and find new audiences,” the tech giant said this week in a press release.
OH, THOSE APPS
Four breakout trends for 2017 were the introduction of augmented-reality apps and games, the rise of real-time competitive gaming, apps focused on mental health and mindfulness, and apps transforming storytelling and reading.
This year, millions of iPhone and iPad users around the world gained access to groundbreaking AR technology.
There was My Very Hungry Caterpillar AR, bringing the classic children’s book character to life, right on people’s coffee tables.
Games were also a big highlight, with Amon and AR Dragon getting notable attention.
REALTIME REVELRY
This year the App Store became home to some of the most-played multiplayer games in the world. Standouts from previous years like Clash Royale and Hearthstone’s Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion were joined by new experiences like Art of War: Red Tides, Stormbound, Guns of Boom Mixes 3D and Modern Combat Versus.
MEANINGFUL MIND
Apple says it has seen a tremendous surge in apps focused specifically on mental health, mindfulness and stress reduction.
Popular mindfulness apps in the region such as colouring-book apps Bloom and Lake tackle destressing a bit more actively, while meditation app Zen Studio contributed to this growing list.
HOUSE FAVOURITES
Besides the app charts based on real downloads by users of iPhones and iPads, the App Store editors picked their favourite applications of the year.
They decided the iPhone App of the Year was Enlight Videoleap, the iPhone Game of the Year Splitter Critters, the iPad App of the Year Affinity Photo and the iPad Game of the Year Old Man's Journey.
And the App Store editors also made lists in the categories of Trends, Top Apps, Top Games and Favourite Stickers.
TOP TRENDS
AR (augmented reality) has been the main trend of 2017. The editors feel the four best AR apps were Euclidean Lands, which is a game, FirmAR Easy Video Editor, Ikea Place, which lets you virtually “place” products in your space, and Insight Heart, which illustrates heart functions.
CHAMPION CHARTS
According to the editors, the top 10 apps in the App Store this year were Bitmoji, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Facebook, Google Maps, Netflix, Spotify Music and Uber.
GREAT GAMES
Apple says the top 10 games of 2017 were Super Mario Run, 8 Ball Pool, Snake VS Block, Ballz, Word Cookies, Subway Surfers, Episode featuring Pitch Perfect, Rolling Sky, Block Hexa Puzzle and Paper.io.
SENSATIONAL STICKERS
The App Store editors’ favourite stickers were Avocado Stickers, Catty Animated Stickers, Vogue, 8-bit Super Mario Stickers, Crazy Freggies, Dov-QQfamily, Mr Pistachio, Flaky the Feline, Sassy Sloths and Fennec Fox Makku (animated).
MAKE IT MUSIC
According to the Top Charts 2017 of music on Apple Music and iTunes, Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” – an infectious track about the dizzying thrill of new love – was the Top Song of 2017.
And the Top Album was “Divide (Deluxe)”, also by Sheeran. He reacted by saying, “Really happy everyone has enjoyed the album this year. Thanks to all who streamed and downloaded.”
TUNE IN TO FILM
Apple’s top movie genres this year were action and superhero films.
According to the Top Charts 2017, the top 19 films movies downloaded by Thai users were “Wonder Woman”, “Doctor Strange”, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”, “Fast & Furious 8”, “SpiderMan: Homecoming”, “Beauty and the Beast, “Moana”, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2”, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”, and “The Great Wall”.
CALL FOR AN APP
Apple says the top 10 free iPhone apps – the most downloaded – were Messenger, Facebook, Line, YouTube’s Watch Listen Stream, JOOX Music – Live and Karaoke, Instagram, Shopee, Camera360 – Selfie Sticker Cam, Google Maps – GPS Navigation and Lazada.
The top 10 paid iPhone apps were Pastel Keyboard Themes Color, Gudak Cam, Analog Paris, LightX, Kirakira+, Glitches, Analog London, Plotagraph+ Photo Animator, Analog Tokyo and Scanner for Me + OCR.
The 10 most-downloaded free iPhone games were Garena RoV, Super Mario Run, QuizClash, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Cookie Run: OvenBreak, Line Let’s Get Rich, Candy Crush Saga, Snake vs Block, Toy Blast and Subway Surfers.
The most-downloaded free iPad apps were YouTube, Line, Facebook, Messenger, Google, Google Chrome, Calculator, Google Maps, Lazada and Gmail.
The most-downloaded paid iPad apps were GoodNotes 4, Notability, Human Anatomy Atlas 2018, Procreate Pastel Keyboard Themes Color, Duet Display, GoodReader, Notepad+ Pro, Video Now Player and Pixelmator.
The most-download free iPad games were Garena RoV, Super Mario Run, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Cookie Run: OvenBreak, Hide.io, Subway Surfers, War Robots, Slither.io, Bowmasters Multiplayer Game and Toy Blast.