iPhone owners upgrading to iOS 26 today will find a brand new, native Apple Games app on their homescreens.
But it’s quite an odd proposition, honestly; it’s difficult to see what exactly it adds for both game-players and game-makers, as it is essentially a more handsome version of functionality that already exists on the App Store’s Games and Today tabs. As Polygon notes in its write-up, it contains a load of features “you’ll swear you already had”.
Arguably the most fun and useful part of the app is within the Library tab. Underneath the subheading ‘Your Games’ you can find every game download linked to your account, right from your very first install.
Scroll right to the bottom and you can see your first downloads – in our case, 16 years ago, it was Trace, Audi A4 Driving Challenge, iBowl, a Solitaire game and something called Space Deadbeef(?). Plus of course Super Monkey Ball Lite.
The Friends tab allows you to see what other people are playing once you have added them as a friend, but again this functionality has existed for some time. It is repurposed here in Apple’s new Liquid Glass style alongside a more colourful Search page, and the app’s Arcade tab also offers a spruced-up array of things already present on the Arcade tab in the App Store.
Apple often also promotes games using new iOS functionality on launch day, but there seems to have been little interest from major game-makers in this new Games app.
The five games billed as being “enhanced by Game Center” in the ‘Welcome to Apple Games’ story appear to be made by solo or indie developers: Drive, Not Dive (Vikas Pawar), Cub8 (Ricardo Mendonca), Flying Tank (David Peroutka), Boot That Ball (Newtquest Games) and Step Safari (Locodolo).
Elsewhere in that introduction story, there’s a call for players to check out some of the pre-existing Friends functionality in games like Thronefall, Subway Surfers, 8 Ball Pool, Super Flappy Golf and Bacon – The Game. There’s another push for Apple Arcade and the Library tab too.
In the official press materials, Apple describes the Apple Games app as “an all-new personalized gaming destination designed to help users jump back into the games they love, find their next favorite, and have more fun with their friends.”
But unless this Apple Games app is a pre-cursor to a more fundamental separation of games from the App Store, it’s difficult to see how it will make any difference to how players play games on Apple devices, or how game-makers promote them. We have asked Apple what benefits the Apple Games app offers to game developers but it has not responded.
