Ahead of its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple has announced the winners and finalists of the 2025 Apple Design Awards, recognizing a select group of standout apps and games across six categories. The awards spotlight design excellence, technical execution, and user experience—highlighting work from development teams around the world.
This year’s awards cover both apps and games across the categories of Delight and Fun, Innovation, Interaction, Inclusivity, Social Impact, and Visuals and Graphics. Winners were chosen from 36 global finalists, all of whom demonstrated high-quality design and strong integration of Apple technologies.
In the Delight and Fun category, CapWords by China-based HappyPlan Tech took top honors for its interactive language-learning approach using image recognition and sticker-based vocabulary building. On the games side, Balatro by Canada’s LocalThunk stood out for its blend of poker mechanics and roguelike deck-building strategy.
The Innovation category recognized Play, a U.S.-developed prototyping tool by Rabbit 3 Times that leverages SwiftUI for seamless cross-platform collaboration. The game award went to PBJ — The Musical by Philipp Stollenmayer (Germany), a quirky, rhythm-based take on Romeo and Juliet, creatively reimagined through food and musical elements.
For Interaction, Apple awarded Taobao by Zhejiang Taobao Network for its Apple Vision Pro shopping experience, offering immersive 3D product exploration. DREDGE, developed by New Zealand’s Black Salt Games, was recognized for its fluid controls and atmospheric gameplay across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Under Inclusivity, Speechify (U.S.) was honored for its robust text-to-speech capabilities, supporting over 50 languages and offering extensive accessibility features. Austria’s Art of Fauna earned the game award for combining visual storytelling with puzzle mechanics in an experience designed with accessibility at its core.
In the Social Impact category, Watch Duty by Sherwood Forestry Service received recognition for providing real-time wildfire alerts and evacuation data. On the game side, Neva by Devolver Digital was praised for its emotional narrative and environmental themes, exploring the relationship between a girl and her wolf companion in a fading world.
Finally, for Visuals and Graphics, Feather: Draw in 3D by South Korea’s Sketchsoft earned the app award for its approachable 3D modeling tools on iPad, integrating Apple Pencil and touch interactions. Singapore-based Infold Games was recognized for Infinity Nikki, a visually rich, open-world title that blends fantasy aesthetics with immersive gameplay.
While the winners represent a range of genres and platforms, they all reflect Apple’s ongoing emphasis on design quality, user experience, and accessibility in app development. The full list of winners and finalists can be viewed on Apple’s Developer site or within the Apple Developer app.
