It has been a little over a month since Apple launched the new Apple TV with the tvOS App Store. The company AppFigures has tracked the progress and found that there are now 2624 apps available. Games and entertainment apps are the most popular.
2600 tvOS apps on Apple TV
AppFigures has found that an average of 447 new apps is added per week. If this trend continues the tvOS App Store will hit 10,000 apps in early 2016. Apps are added at the same pace as when the iPhone App Store opened.
In June 2015, Google said that the Android TV store offered 600 apps but has given no update since. During the same month, Amazon announced that 1600 apps are available on Fire TV. We do not know the number of apps available on LG’s webOS and Samsung’s Tizen.
In an interview with BuzzFeed Apple's Eddy Cue, SVP of internet software and services, confirms that the company has experienced strong support from the developer community.
- “We’re seeing tremendous developer interest. Already we have over 2,000 apps live in the store. And on the customer side, things are going great. What we’ve found is that a little over half of transactions are coming from people upgrading from the last Apple TV and just about the other half are coming from new customers that are buying their first Apple TV,” he said to BuzzFeed.
He also confirmed that a new Remote app for iPhone and iPad is coming early next year, which will make it possible to use Siri to control the Apple TV from the iOS device.
Users like games & video streaming
Eddy Cue confirms that streaming services such as Netflix and HBO as well as games are the most popular things on Apple TV, but he says that some apps in the education and photography categories have done well, too.
This is confirmed by AppFigures’ numbers. They say that out of a total of 2624 apps on tvOS about 1000 are games. Just over 400 are in “entertainment”, which includes streaming services. Approximately 200 are in “education”.
Despite the fact that there are way more games than any other type of app, the top 50 list is dominated by entertainment apps, followed by games and “news”. 61% of apps are free; close to 20% cost $1, about 8.5% cost $2 and approximately 5.5% cost $3.
Apple has also named the best Apple TV apps and games as part of its annual “Best of” initiative. See the top-10 lists below.
Best Apple TV apps, according to Apple
| 1. HBO Now |
| 2. Zova – Personal Trainer |
| 3. Kitchen Stories |
| 4. Netflix |
| 5. Airbnb |
| 6. Showtime |
| 7. Storehouse |
| 8. Hulu |
| 9. Sago mini Fairy Tales TV |
| 10. Playkids |
Best Apple TV games, according to Apple
| 1. Rayman Adventures |
| 2. Lumino City |
| 3. Beat Sports |
| 4. Skylanders Supercharger |
| 5. Guitar Hero Live |
| 6. Beneath The Lighthouse TV |
| 7. Octodad: Dadliest Catch |
| 8. Crossy Road |
| 9. Transistor |
| 10. Just Dance Now |
- Source: BuzzFeed & AppFigures
