Apple 2025 Design Awards: Winners, Highlights & AI Surprises
If you’re wondering who won Apple’s 2025 Design Awards, what categories were featured, or why AI apps were noticeably absent, you’re not alone. Each year, Apple’s Design Awards spotlight the best iOS and macOS apps, often highlighting innovation, usability, and aesthetics. In 2025, the winners list surprised many by continuing a trend from last year: a clear avoidance of generative AI apps. Despite their rising popularity and high earnings potential in app monetization, Apple once again chose to focus on user experience, creativity, and Apple-native tool adoption over AI-powered features.
Apple Celebrates Human-Centered Design Over Generative AI
Announced just days before WWDC 2025, this year’s Apple Design Awards celebrated indie developers and early-stage startups pushing boundaries in app design. While many anticipated a wave of AI-driven tools among the finalists, generative AI apps were largely absent—marking the second consecutive year Apple has overlooked them for this prestigious recognition. This strategic move aligns with Apple’s preference for apps that optimize user engagement, accessibility, and platform-native technologies.
Which Apps Won Apple’s 2025 Design Awards?
Apple awarded 12 winners—one app and one game in each of the following six categories: Delight and Fun, Innovation, Interaction, Inclusivity, Social Impact, and Visuals and Graphics. These awards serve not only to inspire developers but also to influence app discovery in the App Store, impacting downloads, ad revenue, and even venture funding opportunities.
Here’s the full list of this year’s winners:
Delight and Fun
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CapWords (App)
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Balatro (Game)
Inclusivity
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Speechify (App)
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Art of Fauna (Game)
Note: Speechify uses AI for text-to-speech conversion—one of the few AI-adjacent winners.
Innovation
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Play (App)
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PBJ — The Musical (Game)
Play, backed by M13, is a powerful prototyping tool designed for designers and developers.
Interaction
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Taobao (App)
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DREDGE (Game)
Social Impact
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Watch Duty: Wildfire Maps (App)
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Neva (Game)
Watch Duty has become a critical resource for wildfire updates in California, showcasing app utility in real-world emergencies.
Visuals and Graphics
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Feather: Draw in 3D (App)
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Infinity Nikki (Game)
High-Performing Apps and Revenue Potential
Many of the selected apps—especially those in the innovation and inclusivity categories. Even though Apple didn’t fully endorse generative AI, apps like Speechify demonstrate how AI can be integrated in meaningful, non-intrusive ways that serve diverse audiences.
Why Apple Skipped Generative AI Again
Despite the AI boom across industries, Apple’s continued exclusion of pure AI apps from its awards suggests a strategic positioning. The company favors apps that enhance user experience through native development tools like SwiftUI, ARKit, and Core ML, rather than fully relying on third-party AI models. This focus not only ensures tighter integration with Apple ecosystems but also boosts app performance, security, and usability—key factors that Apple prioritizes in its ecosystem.
What This Means for Developers and Marketers
Want to boost your app’s visibility or monetize your software better? Focus on UX design, mobile innovation, and platform-native capabilities, and you might just find your app among next year’s winners.
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