Apple Arcade’s top 2024 games hint at surprisingly thriving service

Yesterday, Apple announced its top Apple Arcade downloads of the year, as well as its Top rankings of iPhone apps and non-arcade games. The most popular arcade game seems to indicate that the service is surprisingly thriving five years after its launch.

The 10 most downloaded arcade games in the United States

Apple has released the top rankings for Apple Arcade in specific regions, and here are the most downloaded games in the United States in 2024.

1. NBA 2K24 Arcade Edition
2. Snake War +
3. Hello Kitty Island Adventure
4. Sneaky Sasquatch
5. Balloon Tower Defense 6+
6. sonic dream team
7. NFL Throwback Bowl ’25
8. Disney Dream Valley
9. Cooking Mom: Cooking!
10. Card Game by MobilityWare+

You can view A full list of the most downloaded games can be found herewhich includes more titles.

The 2024 winners are new releases that have received rave reviews

I admit that I am not a big user of Apple Arcade.

I’m an Apple One subscriber and loved the service in its early days, but over the past year or two it’s basically fallen off my radar.

So I’m curious what the top games list might tell me about whether this is a broader trend.

While we don’t have download numbers for these games, I’m particularly curious about one thing: Will the top games of 2024 be new releases or old classics?

Essentially, I want to know if Apple Arcade has a thriving gaming ecosystem.

The answer surprised me.

Seven out of ten games in the top 10 were released in the past year or so. Only three older games continue to be popular on the service.

If you just look at the top eight, you’ll see that seven of them are newer games, with the only exception being increasingly resilient games Sneaky Sasquatch.

You can interpret this data however you want, but I think it points out:

1. Apple Arcade has a healthy, active user base
2. With new game’s success, developers’ efforts are paying off

If you want to consider another key data point – customer reviews – the top 10 games are also strong.

Here are details on the current star ratings for the 10 most popular arcade games:

• The trio has a star rating of 4.9
• The other three have ratings of 4.8
• The remaining four titles were 4.7, two were 4.6 and one was 4.0

Apple Arcade has a lot of new games that users are connecting with, and they seem to be really good games too.

Apple Arcade Top Games: Summary

Overall, I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen and heard about Apple Arcade’s most popular games of 2024. While the service isn’t particularly popular with me, it’s clear that even five years after Arcade launched, Apple is still onto something good.

What are your thoughts on top arcade games? What do you think of the overall service? Let us know in the comments.

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