Apple names Clash Royale its iPhone GOTY, Reigns is Runner Up

Apple has declared Supercell's Clash Royale the Game of the Year on iPhone, with Nerial's Reigns named as the best Runner-Up.

In many ways, the games represent the breadth of the App Store. Clash Royale is the latest release from one of mobile's most valuable and successful companies, it is free-to-play, and supports a huge audience of players. Reigns, on the other hand, is a premium priced, single-player game from a small London-based studio, published by the indie boutique label Devolver Digital. Both are worthy recipients of Apple's praise.

Apple also marked out eight more iPhone games to make up its ten best of the year:

• Inks - State of Play Games
• FIFA Mobile Football - Electronic Arts
• Klocki - Rainbow Train
• Rodeo Stampede: Sky Zoo Safari - Yodo1
• PKTBALL - Laser Dog Games
• Snakebird - Noumenon Games
• Twofold Inc. - Grapefrukt Games
• The Trail - 22Cans

Drinkbox Studios' Severed was named iPad Game of the Year, with Noodlecake Studios' Chameleon Run the best Runner-Up.

Apple has also published the ten most popular apps on the App Store in 2016 in terms of downloads. It will come as no surprise that Pokémon Go was the only game to make it into the ten most popular free apps, but the fact that it was third to only Snapchat and Messenger and finished ahead of Instagram and Facebook is very impressive.

The ten most popular paid apps were dominated by games, with Warner Bros.' Heads Up! finishing the year at number one. The other games in the paid list were Mojang's Minecraft: Pocket Edition, Robtop Games' Geometry Dash, Ndemic Creations' Plague Inc., and Ninja Kiwi's Bloons TD5.