In a nutshell: Apple in traditional end-of-the-year fashion has shared the top free and paid iPhone apps and games of 2023. Topping the free app list for iPhone is Temu, a subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce company PDD Holdings. Temu is a lot like Amazon, except that it specializes in heavily discounted goods that are often shipped directly from China. If there's a generic / knockoff / fake version of a specific product, you can probably find it here.
The remaining top five free iPhone apps include CapCut – Video Editor, Max (the streaming app), Threads (the Instagram app), and TikTok. Instagram, Google, YouTube, WhatsApp Messenger, and Gmail round out the top 10, in that order.
On the paid side, the top five apps consist of Shadowrocket (a proxy utility), HotSchedules (employee scheduling app), Procreate Pocket (art), The Wonder Weeks (a baby app), and 75 Hard (a wellness app).
Monopoly Go! took the crown as the top free iPhone game. Roblox, Royal Match, Subway Surfers, and Gardenscapes completed the top five in that order, with Call of Duty: Mobile narrowly missing the top five in the number six position.
Minecraft was the top paid iPhone game in 2023, which is no surprise considering it is also the best-selling video game of all time. It was followed by Heads Up! and Geometry Dash. Other games you might recognize in the top 10 include Five Nights at Freddy's at number nine and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas at 10.
Apple also shared the top Apple Arcade games over the past year. NBA 2K23 Arcade Edition earned the gold medal, beating out Cooking Mama: Cuisine!, Bloons TD 6+, Angry Birds Reloaded, and Sneaky Sasquatch for the honor.
Apple didn't leave out the iPad but for the sake of brevity, we will skip the full rundown here. All you really need to know is that streaming led the way with four of the top five free apps. The complete list of iPad apps is available over on Apple's website for those interested.
Image credit: ilgmyzin, Brett Jordan