Apple Crowns Its Top Apps of 2025, and AI Dominates the Field
Apple named the 17 winners of its 2025 App Store Awards on Thursday, and AI has made its presence felt. App of the Year Tiimo, created for people with ADHD, is an AI visual planner; iPad App of the Year Uses AI to Simplify Video Editing; and Mac App of the Year Essayist uses AI to make “the tedious work of formatting academic papers” easier.
Apple began handing out App Store Awards over a decade ago, with recent App of the Year winners including Kino (2024), AllTrails (2023), BeReal (2022), Toca Life World (2021), and Wakeout! (2020).
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It’s clear from this year’s selections that the AI juggernaut will continue to grow in global influence. The Business of Apps, a B2B media and information platform, estimates that the AI applications industry generated $4.5 billion in 2024 – more than half of which came through ChatGPT – and that nearly 700 million people used AI applications in the first half of 2025. The website predicts that the AI applications industry will exceed $150 billion in revenue by 2030.
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“Every year, we are inspired by how developers turn their best ideas into innovative experiences that enrich people’s lives,” said Tim Cook, Apple CEO. “This year’s winners represent the creativity and excellence that define the App Store, and they demonstrate the significant impact that world-class apps and games have on people around the world.”
“For brains that work differently”
Tiimo is based in Copenhagen and was co-founded by Helene Lassen Nørlem and Melissa Würtz Azari to create planning tools for people with autism, ADHD, neurodivergence and differences in executive functioning. The company’s website says its app’s tools “are adaptive by design; visual, flexible, and grounded in how neurodivergent people actually plan, think, and follow through,” and notes that the app is “for brains that work differently.”
The app began as a research project exploring how technology could support neurodivergent teens, but Würtz Azari turned it into a business after being diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, according to the company.
Tiimo’s App of the Year award comes a year after the app was named a finalist at the 2024 Apple Design Awards in the inclusiveness category.
Würtz Azari said Tiimu succeeds because its developers “challenge the status quo” of how apps typically present calendars, to-do lists and focus tools. We “build focus timers into tasks, add small celebration cues, and build in subtle enhancements that make organization easier,” she said.
Tackle the beast of quotes
Anyone who has written a research paper or dissertation knows how incredibly boring and time-consuming it is to make citations.
Essayist, the Mac app of the year, uses AI to “seamlessly insert citations” for APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, and Harvard citation styles. The application also facilitates the processes of adding references and formatting documents.
Video editing made AI easier
The Detail app, which Apple named iPad App of the Year, claims its app can “turn podcasts, reactions, and presentations into share-ready content in seconds.”
Detail says its auto-edit feature can do “removal of silence, zoom cuts, titles, captions, music and more.”
Detail also says its Podcast Auto Edit tool can “generate multiple long and short clip edits for social media with just one click – – automatically switch speakers and save hours of editing.”
The full list of winners
Selected from previously announced finalists, here are the 17 winners of Apple’s 2025 App Store Awards:
iPhone app of the year: Tiimo
iPhone Game of the Year: Pokémon TCG Pocket
iPad app of the year: Detail
iPad Game of the Year: DRAG
Mac app of the year: Essayist
Mac Game of the Year: Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition
Apple Vision Pro App of the Year: Explore the point of view
Apple Vision Pro Game of the Year: Porta Nubi
Apple Watch App of the Year:Strava
Apple TV app of the year:HBO Max
Apple Arcade Game of the Year: WHAT’S THE SHOCK?
Cultural Impact Winners: Wildlife Art, Songs of Sennaar, despelote, Be My Eyes, Focus Friend and StoryGraph
