![Screen shot 2009-12-08 at [ December 8 ] 11.09.20 AM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Screen-shot-2009-12-08-at-December-8-11.09.20-AM.png "Screen shot 2009-12-08 at [ December 8 ] 11.09.20 AM")
With Christmas looming, the post-holiday spike of app sales is just weeks away. As new iPhone owners find their way into the App Store for the first time, they’ll be looking for the best of the best to throw their money at – and Apple’s ready to cash in.
Earlier today Apple released “iTunes Rewind 2009″, a list of the top selling and most loved applications of the year.
They’ve broken things down in four ways: Best of Games, Best of Apps, Top Selling Games, and Top Selling Apps. The “Best of” categories appear to be staff picks, rather than a list of the apps with the best user ratings – which, considering that the ratings system is endlessly being gamed, is probably a good thing.
Here’s how it all worked out:
Best Selling Games of 2009:
- The Sims, EA
- The Oregon Trail, Gameloft
- Need For Speed, EA
- Madden NFL 10, EA
- Tiger Woods PGA Tour, EA
- Assassins Creed, Gameloft
- Flight Control, Firemint
- Cooking Mama, Taito
- Civilization Revolution, 2k Games
- Wheel Of Fortune, Sony
- Peggle, Popcap
- Sonic The Hedgehog, Sega
- Let’s Golf, Gameloft
- 2XL Supercross, 2XL Games
- Real Racing, Firemint
- Sally’s Spa, Games Cafe
- Stick Wars, John E. Hartzog
- Ragdoll Blaster, Backflip Studios
- Deer Hunter 3d, Glu
- Fast & Furious, I-Play
- Metal Gear Solid, Konami
- F.A.S.T, SGN
- Zenonia, Gamevil
- 3d Brick Breaker, Digital Chocolate
- Bookworm, Popcap
- Modern Combat: Sandstorm, Gameloft
- Doom Resurrection, id
As you can tell by looking at the top of the list, EA and Gameloft absolutely dominated the App Store this year. Few other developers have more than one item in the top sellers; EA and Gameloft both have 4.
Best Selling Apps of 2009:
- MobileNavigator North America, Navigon
- MBL.com at Bat, MLB
- Textfree, Pinger
- TomTom US & Canada, TomTom
- Golfshot, Shotzoom
- Slingplayer Mobile
- ColorSplash, Pocket Pixels
- PocketGod, Bolt Creative
- Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite, Quickoffice
- The Moron Test, DistinctDev
- I Am T-Pain, Smule
- Red Laser, Occipital
- Camera Zoom 2, Kenditech
- AppBox Pro, ALLABOUTAPPS
- iBird Explorer, Mitch Waite
- Documents To Go, DataViz
- ViewTi Golf, ViewTi
- Emoji Icons, SpiceLoop
- AIM, AOL
- Weather Channel Max, Weather Channel Interactive
- Wolfenstein 3d, ID
- PicFree, Pinger
- Proloquo 2 Go, AssistiveWare
- CNN Mobile, CNN
- Camera Genius, CodeGoo
- MotionX GPS Drive, MotionX
- FlightTrack Pro, Mobiata
- Family Guy, Fox Mobile
- iSoda, Hottrix
- ESPN Radio, ESPN
Unlike the Top Games list, there aren’t any repeat winners here. It appears that we’re looking at the top grossing apps, not necessarily the apps that sold the most units. Note the appearance of Proloquo2Go, a $190 text-to-speech system for people who have difficulty speaking.
Best Games of 2009:
- Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, Tiger Style
- Real Racing, Firemint
- ZENONIA, Gamevil
- Ravensword: The Fallen King, Chillingo
- Earth Vs. Moon, Low Five Games
- Sally’s Spa, Games Cafe
- Ragdoll Blaster, Backflip Studios
- Canabalt, Semi Secret
- Blades of Fury, Gameloft
- Doom Classic, iD
- Sway, Illusion Labs
- geoDefense, Critical Thought
- Flight Control, Firemint
- Alive 4-ever, meridian
- Fantastic Contraption, inXile
- Samurai: Way of the Warrior, Mad Finger Games
- Backbreaker Football, NaturalMotion
- Meteor Blitz, Alley Labs
- Rolando 2, ngmoco
- Star Hogs, IUGO
- Paper Toss, Backflip
- Boost 3d, Jonathan Lanis
- Doodle Jump, Lima Sky
- Zen Bound, Chillingo
- Stick Wars, John E. Hartzog
- Eliminate Pro, ngmoco
- Tap Tap Revenge, Tapulous
- Call Of Duty: World At War: Zombies, Activision
- iBomber, Cobra Mobile
- Jet Car Stunts, True Axis
The contrast in Apple’s favorites vs. the top sellers is interesting. Where as Gameloft and EA dominate the top sales lists, only Gameloft even shows up here, with Blades Of Fury. It seems like Apple made it a point to highlight the smaller dev teams as much as possible.
Best Apps Of 2009:
- ReelDirector, Nexvio
- Magellan Roadmate 2010 North America, Magellan
- Jamie Oliver’s 20 minute meals, Zolmo
- I Am T-Pain, Smule
- CBS Sports: Live College Games, CBS
- Sketchbook Mobile, Autodesk
- Star Walk, Vito Technology
- Convertbot, Tapbots
- Leaf Trombone: World Stage, Smule
- Pano, Debacle Software
- Color Splash, Pocket Pixels
- (SHAZAM)Red, Shazam Entertainment
- SmackTalk!, Marcus Satellite
- Awesome Note, BRID
- Mathemagics – Mental Math Tricks, Blue Lightning Labs
- Tweetie 2, atebits
- Musée du Louvre, Musée du Louvre
- Flight Update Pro, Silverware Software
- CNBC Real Time, NBC Universal
- ESPN ScoreCenter, ESPN
- Vintage Video Maker, MacPhun
- Storyboard Composer, Cinemek
- Fandango Movie, Fandango
- Beejive IM with Push, Beejive
- Zipcar, Zipcar
- Credit Card Terminal, Inner Fence
- NBA League Pass Mobile, MobiTV
- NearestWiki, acrossair
- Golfshot, Shotzoom
- Mover, Infinite Labs
What do you think – any apps on the top lists that you wouldn’t have expected? Any that you expected to see that didn’t make it?
Why not this “News Hour” – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/news-hour/id332515188?mt=8
What happene to brainhack? iTunes dis post on their page… This one http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=295462503&mt=8
Spotasaurus. Great app, should have made the list.
I expected Myst on the list of best games, I thought it was in the top 1 for many weeks and top 10 for months.
Try out Word Bust, it’s a hybrid of scrabble and bejeweled where you have to spell out words from a collection of random letters. You should look for it in the app store.
Any chance we can see this list linked up to the apps? Would be a lot more helpful. Thanks,
dm
Hey presto –
http://www.appatcha.com/2009/12/apples-best-of-2009-complete-list-with-links/
It’d be awesome to see the top FREE apps of 2009 :)
Where’s BATTLE BEARS? It was the Top Action & Adventure game for almost 8 weeks.
Violent Impact is an interesting game that i dont see on this list surprisingly.
Isn’t this kinda sad for small and independent developers? Big companies absolutely dominate these lists. We hear all of these inspirational stories about the small guys striking it rich, but for the most part it seems that the big guys still account for the vast majority of app store sales.
What does “Best Selling” mean? Is it the most revenue? Is it the most volume (downloads)? What?
That is an excellent list. Thousands of people worked on developing and testing them. It is good for economic growth.
I said it before, and I am going to say it again: What we need in this country is vigorous economic growth. If other countries can grow at 10% a year, so can we! It is all a matter of putting in place the right policies and tax incentives.
This is the only way out of this mess that we are in. Strong growth reduces unemployment. This is a prerequisite for homeowners to have a paycheck to pay the mortgage, so that real estate stabilizes and the banking crisis abates.
It will also increase company profits and help the stock market move higher to help people’s retirement plans catch up. Why don’t we do it? Wish I knew. All the focus has been on irrelevant issues and not on this important one. Hopefully it will be addressed soon.
By the way, with all the volatility in the stock market, it is important to know when to get in and when to get out. Timing signals can help an investor enhance their investment returns.
Consider http://invetrics.com
Its daily DJIA index trading signal is up a respectable 77% for the year (as of December 2, 2009) and it is free of charge for individual investors.
We’ve published this list complete with links to the app store here: http://www.appatcha.com/2009/12/apples-best-of-2009-complete-list-with-links/
Hey thanks Appatch. That was very useful for me..
From this coverage, iPhone seems yet another game device, but its much more. Would be cool of you to publish non-game apps too.
um… read the article
There is a strong rumor that Shozu is being acquired by Critical Path (www.criticalpath.net). Can anyone confirm?
Otherwise the list is good, but it’s missing few great titles (for example):
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/minigore/id324016249?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/spooky-spirits-puzzle-drop/id339559266?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/drawrace/id320231609?mt=8