Temu, Minecraft, Max Among Most Popular iPhone And iPad Apps Of 2023

Along with Spotify Wrapped and other year-end lists, another annual December tradition has been Apple's announcement of the year's most popular iOS and iPadOS apps and games. For 2023, the company has compiled year-end charts that are localized for 35 different countries and regions in several different categories, in addition to its App Store Editorial team naming its 2023 App Store Award winners. With over 650 million weekly visitors to the App Store this year, the apps at the tops of these lists have been downloaded to countless iPhones and iPads around the world. You can currently see the full 2023 charts for your region on the Today tab of the App Store.

Apps and games have been divided into paid and free categories — which makes sense since people are more likely to download a free app without necessarily having a strong intention to actually use it. The top free iPhone apps for the U.S. were Temu, CapCut, Max, Threads, and TikTok. It's clearly been a big year for Temu, the online retailer that was spun off from a Chinese e-commerce company. Temu was already exploding in popularity in 2022 but continued that momentum throughout 2023, thanks to low prices, aggressive advertising, and growing name recognition. However, as more people download and shop on Temu, more have been becoming aware of scams and other issues with the company.

Meanwhile, social media shows its enduring popularity, with two spots in the top five. TikTok has managed to continue its growth despite being around for years at this point. At the same time, Threads — Meta's answer to X, formerly known as Twitter — hit the ground running with record-breaking downloads last spring before dropping off in usage after just a few weeks.

The streaming service Max, which was number three on the list of top free iPhone apps in the U.S., was also at the very top of the list of the most downloaded free iPad apps of 2023. A good reason for its high numbers is that — in addition to rebranding and changing its name from HBO Max earlier this year — parent company Warner Bros. Discovery required users to download an entirely new app to use the service rather than simply update the pre-existing HBO Max one. Anyone looking to continue their subscription and new customers have added to Max's download count.

However, other streaming services and media content apps like YouTube, Netflix, and Disney+ didn't require existing subscribers to download a new app this year. Yet, those platforms were the second, third, and fifth most downloaded iPad apps of 2023. Despite higher prices and controversies over content libraries, their inclusion in the top five suggests streaming isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Rounding out the top five free iPad apps of this year is Google Chrome, which came in at number four. Temu and TikTok, which are in the top five free iPhone apps, also made the top 10 for iPads, as did Goodnotes 6, Amazon Prime Video, and Peacock.

It's been a big year for Procreate, the digital software app that released the animator creator and editor Procreate Dreams earlier this year. Procreate was the most downloaded paid iPad app in 2023, proving its reputation as the go-to digital art platform for Apple's tablets. People seem to even like using it on a much smaller screen, as Procreate Pocket took the number three spot in the list of top five paid iPhone apps this year. The most downloaded paid iPhone app was the proxy client Shadowrocket. Number two was the employee scheduling app HotSchedules; number four was the baby-tracking app The Wonder Weeks, and number five was 75 Hard, a health and fitness app based on mental fortitude and habit-making.

Besides Procreate, the top five paid iPad apps for 2023 included Shadowrocket, Nomad Sculpt, forScore, and "Toca Life: Hospital" in the number two through five spots, respectively. Nomad Sculpt allows you to sculpt, paint, and create 3D art, including detailed faces. forScore is a very useful music sheet app, and "Toca Life: Hospital" is a cute animated game that is technically classified as an education app.

"Minecraft," which came out over 12 years ago, is still dominating the mobile gaming market with players of all ages — it's number one in both the top paid iPhone games and top paid iPad games lists for 2023. "Heads Up!," "Geometry Dash," "Bloons TD 6," and "Monopoly" make up the rest of the top five iPhone paid games list, while the top five paid iPad games list is slightly different: "Geometry Dash," "Bloons TD 6," "Stardew Valley," and "Monopoly" are in positions two through five. This makes sense, though — "Heads Up!" is tough to play when you've got to quickly flip a 12.9-inch iPad to your forehead.

While "Minecraft" topped the paid games lists, "Roblox" is doing nearly the same for free games. It's in the number two spot for the top free iPhone games of 2023 and the most downloaded free iPad game of the year. "Roblox" was beaten by "Monopoly Go!" for the top spot for free iPhone games, and "Royal Match," "Subway Surfers," and "Gardenscapes" took the number three, four, and five positions, respectively. "Magic Tiles 3: Piano Game," "Subway Surfers," "Royal Match," and "Among Us!" fill out the top five list of free iPad games of 2023.

Apple also listed the most downloaded titles from its Apple Arcade service, which allows you to play any of its games if you're a paid subscriber. The top five Apple Arcade games in the U.S. for 2023 were: "NBA 2K23 Arcade Edition," "Cooking Mama: Cuisine!," "Bloons TD 6+," "Angry Birds Reloaded," and "Sneaky Sasquatch."