By David Snow •
Apple chose 12 apps and games as the best of the best in 2026 from its developer community on Tuesday, honoring titles spanning six award categories for recognition at WWDC26 next week.
“This year’s Apple Design Award winners are a remarkable reflection of how developers are creating exceptional experiences,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. She added that honorees “represent the very best of what our platform makes possible.”
The winners — drawn from a pool of 36 global finalists — range from quirky affirmation tools to visually stunning open-world games, Apple said. Development teams hail from the Netherlands, Spain, India, the UK, Canada, Poland, Italy and the United States. They’ll get their awards at WWDC26 next week.
Here’s a look at who won and why by category.
The app winner, grug (Ocho, Netherlands), is a tongue-in-cheek daily affirmation tool built around “neolithic grunts.” Those are short, cave-person-style prompts meant to spark a moment of quiet reflection. Its charm lies in its simplicity.
The game winner, Is This Seat Taken? (Poti Poti Studio, Spain), is a cartoon puzzle game set on public transit. Players work through logic challenges about seating arrangements, guided by whimsical characters and a slow-burn, unhurried sense of humor.
Guitar Wiz (Bijoy Thangaraj, India) took the app prize for its comprehensive approach to guitar learning. The toolkit offers spoken guidance on pitch and finger placement and leans into accessibility features like Dynamic Type, Increased Contrast and Differentiate Without Color. That makes it genuinely usable for a wide range of musicians.
Pine Hearts (Hyper Luminal Games, UK) earned the game award for a warmhearted experience built around doing good in a gentle world. The title incorporates adjustable text, customizable controls, and tweakable motion and sensory feedback so players of varying abilities can engage on their own terms.
The NBA: Live Games and Scores app (NBA Media Ventures, US) claimed the app prize for its Apple Vision Pro experience, which lets fans follow up to five live games simultaneously alongside floating real-time stats and a 3D tabletop court view. The app also supports Spatial Audio and includes Spectrum Front Row, an immersive broadcast mode featuring the Lakers in Apple Immersive Video.
Blue Prince (Dogubomb, US) won for games. The mystery-adventure title takes players through a sprawling mansion one room at a time, weaving together exploration, puzzles, and environmental narrative clues — with enough hidden content to essentially constitute a second game lurking beneath the first.
Moonlitt: Moon Phase Tracker (Flipping Hues Srls, Italy) won the app category for its elegant, cross-platform approach to tracking lunar events and planning night-sky photography. Apple highlighted its smooth onboarding and strong implementation of Liquid Glass, the interface design language introduced with iOS 26.
The game award went to Sago Mini Jinja’s Garden (Sago Mini, Canada), an Apple Arcade title aimed at young children. The game centers on planting, harvesting, and cooking with swipe-based controls simple enough that kids can dive in without reading any instructions.
Primary: News in Depth (Wood Metal Rocks LLC, US) earned recognition for its Apple Vision Pro news experience, which uses a spatial grid layout edited by a team of journalists to help readers engage more deliberately with current events.
Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia and AP Thomson, US) took the game award for its autobiographical treatment of a sensitive personal subject. Rather than explaining its themes through text, the game uses mechanics to put players in direct emotional contact with experiences that are hard to articulate.
Tide Guide: Charts & Tables (Condor Digital, US) won the app category for its polished presentation of tidal and weather data. Custom animations, an aquatic color palette that shifts to match sky conditions, and well-integrated Liquid Glass styling combine to make practical forecasting data genuinely beautiful.
Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition (CD Projekt S.A., Poland) claimed the game prize for its visual achievement on Mac. The open-world title pushes Apple silicon and the Metal graphics framework hard, producing dense urban environments, detailed character work, and vehicle designs that feel authentically worn-in.
David Snow, an expert on Apple hardware and software, writes on a variety of technological and cultural topics for Cult of Mac. They include Apple news, technology buying guides, and features about computer setups and Apple TV shows and movies.
With 30 years of experience covering technology and other subjects, he has written and edited for numerous print and online publications, including CMP Media, TechTV.com, CNET, Wired News, Red Herring magazine, Law.com, The National Law Journal and Law Technology News magazine. Among other roles, he served as executive editor of the Law.com network of websites and editorial director, technology, for ALM Media.
Snow graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University with majors in magazine journalism and psychology. While there, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Orange newspaper and associate editor of Equal Time magazine.
Founder of the blog At the Waterline, he can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) via @atthewaterline and on Mastodon via @dsnow.
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