Apple TV App Store gains over 400 apps each week, nearly half of all apps are games, data shows

AppleInsider

Apple's new app store for the Apple TV platform now features over 2600 apps, with an average of 447 new apps coming each week, according to recently-published third-party data.

The study, published in a post to the AppFigures blog on Thursday, showed steady growth in apps available on the new tvOS platform with a total of 2624 apps now available for download. Much like iOS, the largest category for Apple TV apps is the Games category, accounting for nearly 38 percent of all apps on the platform. Entertainment and Education rounded out the top three.

Despite the proliferation of games on the platform, the numbers are slightly different when it comes to what people are actually downloading. Entertainment apps actually lead the way in terms of downloads, with Games coming in second and the News category third. Moreover, of the top 50 apps, 28 of them are in the Entertainment category while only 8 of them are games.

As for monetization, more developers appear to be charging users for apps, as opposed to the freemium model that currently dominates iOS. While a majority of developers are opting to stick with free-to-download apps, a full 39 percent of apps on the Apple TV App Store are paid, with developers charging mostly small amounts of $2.99 or less to download, although some are as high as $59.99.

The newest version of tvOS, 9.1, was released on Tuesday.

boltsfan17

I don't think that will happen anytime soon. Xbox One/PS4 are expected to reach over 50 million combined sales at the end of the month. It's going to take a lot for the Apple TV to catch up. 

Personally, I don't think you can really compare the Apple TV to gaming systems like the PS4. The Apple TV isn't powerful enough to run console titles. I love my Apple TV and some of the games on the App Store, but it will never have in depth games with great graphics like the WItcher 3, Uncharted, Last of Us, etc. 

derrickdoingit

sog35 said:

Amazing.  200 new games each week.

Give it 3 years and AppleTV will outsell Xbox/PS/Nintendo.

As long as Apple forces developers to develop their games with the Siri Remote it's not going to be taken as a serious platform for gaming. It's like a Wii, no one took that console as a serious gaming machine.

rare comment

derrickdoingit said:

sog35 said:

Amazing.  200 new games each week.

Give it 3 years and AppleTV will outsell Xbox/PS/Nintendo.

As long as Apple forces developers to develop their games with the Siri Remote it's not going to be taken as a serious platform for gaming. It's like a Wii, no one took that console as a serious gaming machine.

I fear derrickdoingit is exactly right on the first part: the Siri Remote doesn't work well for even simple games, let alone complicated ones so the requirement is a real handicap to developers who want players to feel like they are getting their money's and time's worth.

I didn't quite understand the second sentence - I'd be interested in hearing more about this (I thought the Wii was VERY successful and that those who didn't take it seriously were quite surprised when it did so well).  In fact, my hope was that Apple TV would be very similar to the Wii and show that gameplay didn't require power (it can't really compete on power, I think). 

libertyforall

So is 3rd Gen ATV dead?  No further enhancements??  

eightzero

Sure hope Apple provides a web interface of the tvOS Apps Store. There are many times I'd like to browse for stuff, but am not looking at my Apple TV. Have a web interface to browse, and then sign in with a apple ID, and those that you have marked "favorites" show up on your apple TV next time you log in.

bdkennedy1002

That's really interesting, because every Tuesday I go to What's New in the Games category and there hasn't been hardly anything new added in the past month since I bought it.

anantksundaram

libertyforall said:

So is 3rd Gen ATV dead?  No further enhancements??  

Why would you expect anything else?

nolamacguy

libertyforall said:

So is 3rd Gen ATV dead?  No further enhancements??  

do you really expect them to continue development of an older OS version for an older device with older capabilities? 

jasenj1

boltsfan17 said:

Personally, I don't think you can really compare the Apple TV to gaming systems like the PS4. The Apple TV isn't powerful enough to run console titles. I love my Apple TV and some of the games on the App Store, but it will never have in depth games with great graphics like the WItcher 3, Uncharted, Last of Us, etc. 

Agreed. I bought an Xbox One for Christmas. Many of the games are over 20GB! I think the aTV could be a great successor to the Wii. Lots of sub $5 and free games.

There is a great stable of existing iOS games that can be ported to tvOS with (I suspect) relatively little effort. I think Apple will really need to tackle the issue of multiple players & controllers before the aTV can really break out as a casual family game machine.

eightzero

nolamacguy said:

libertyforall said:

So is 3rd Gen ATV dead?  No further enhancements??  

do you really expect them to continue development of an older OS version for an older device with older capabilities? 

...and that they are still selling at old prices?

yojimbo007

Apple needs to allow folders .. It's very inefficient to scan through all these apps on one page.. It's ridiculous! Games .. Screensavers , chana,s all mixed up on one page ! Also apple needs to allow us to creat favorites folderS for orginizing what we like. Way of consolidating programing from different apps ... Example of such folders could be ( my favorite syfy, favorite news, favorite sidcom.. Etc) Each folder can show a dot with a number inside ( like ios mail) showing designated new content that has not been watched or something along those lines ) Hec my stupid dvr is capable of some orginization. Without this orginizationsl tools at the core of TVOS .. It will be mess and inefficiant !

cali

derrickdoingit said:

sog35 said:

Amazing.  200 new games each week.

Give it 3 years and AppleTV will outsell Xbox/PS/Nintendo.

As long as Apple forces developers to develop their games with the Siri Remote it's not going to be taken as a serious platform for gaming. It's like a Wii, no one took that console as a serious gaming machine.

The Wii was the fastest selling console in history and sold out for 2 years I believe. It also made the most money in console history.

The crap you read on IGN against Nintendo is akin to the crap you read against Apple in tech blogs. You chose to believe it.

the only thing that "hurt" the Wii was graphics and crapppy developers. For example, they had 100's of cheap games hoping to cash in on the craze but Mario Galaxy 2 on Wii is the 2nd most critically acclaimed game in history.

Admittedly Apple is allowing too much crap through their ecosystem too. The Siri remote is still less functional than Wii remote+nunchuck and the A8 chip might discourage a few developers.

They really should have went all in and don't give me that "but Apple wanted to make it affordable!" crap. Because, when has Apple been a cheap budget company?

A9x, Taptic Engine and TouchID with instant settings and gaming profile would have blown developers away.

My theory is they're saving the best hardware for when their TV service is finalized.

tallest skil

yojimbo007 said:

Apple needs to allow folders .. It's very inefficient to scan through all these apps on one page.. 

To expand on this theme, Apple needs to allow NESTED FOLDERS in iWork in iOS. It's just completely insane that this isn't possible.

yojimbo007

tallest skil said:

yojimbo007 said:

Apple needs to allow folders .. It's very inefficient to scan through all these apps on one page.. 

To expand on this theme, Apple needs to allow NESTED FOLDERS in iWork in iOS. It's just completely insane that this isn't possible.

No doubt.. The whole file/ folder management/orginazition scheme or lack there of in ios  is bewidering.. Cumbersome and inefficient... 
Apple Please !???

flashfan207

rare comment said:

derrickdoingit said:

sog35 said:

Amazing.  200 new games each week.

Give it 3 years and AppleTV will outsell Xbox/PS/Nintendo.

As long as Apple forces developers to develop their games with the Siri Remote it's not going to be taken as a serious platform for gaming. It's like a Wii, no one took that console as a serious gaming machine.

I fear derrickdoingit is exactly right on the first part: the Siri Remote doesn't work well for even simple games, let alone complicated ones so the requirement is a real handicap to developers who want players to feel like they are getting their money's and time's worth.

I didn't quite understand the second sentence - I'd be interested in hearing more about this (I thought the Wii was VERY successful and that those who didn't take it seriously were quite surprised when it did so well).  In fact, my hope was that Apple TV would be very similar to the Wii and show that gameplay didn't require power (it can't really compete on power, I think). 


Actually, there are plenty of Bluetooth controller options. The best of which being the SteelSeries Nimbus, so IMHO both of derrickdoingit's points didn't really make sense to me.

But you are absolutely correct about the reasons for the Wii's amazing success. Gameplay, above all else, is what makes a game great. Graphics is of secondary, however still very much appreciated, importance to the fun of games. If a game looks great, but is boring, it will still fail. iOS games equal this point, as smartphone games do not have the graphical capabilities that a PS4 would have. But iOS games are still IMMENSELY successful, and  Apple TV games can also be very successful as well if the developers do them right. I am looking very forward to seeing what they can come up with. 

edited December 2015

pmcd

They may be adding 400 a day or whatever but most seem really underwhelming. Not much better than Android TV. They do have Infuse, Plex and similar apps which are quite good but they also have a strange Netflix app, the layout of which is awful. It is also less than stable. Previous Netflix apps made it easy to view similar movies to one of interest. Now you have to view the movie to see a couple of suggestions. It just seems awful to me unless I have a setting wrong.

freediverx

It's nice to see the selection of apps growing but so far I've only seen a handful of quality apps and a ton of crappy ones.

nolamacguy

eightzero said:

nolamacguy said:

libertyforall said:

So is 3rd Gen ATV dead?  No further enhancements??  

do you really expect them to continue development of an older OS version for an older device with older capabilities? 

...and that they are still selling at old prices?

I can go to a Toyota dealer and buy an old model but it won't get new features. it only gets the old features that were new when it was new. same thing. 

pepe779

nolamacguy said:

eightzero said:

nolamacguy said:

libertyforall said:

So is 3rd Gen ATV dead?  No further enhancements??  

do you really expect them to continue development of an older OS version for an older device with older capabilities? 

...and that they are still selling at old prices?

I can go to a Toyota dealer and buy an old model but it won't get new features. it only gets the old features that were new when it was new. same thing. 

Not true. There are tens of millions of ATV3s out there and just like it has already been said, Apple is still selling those and most likely will for quite some time. ATV3 as such is not that ancient, it was released in 2012, yet it's badly abandoned. Don't forget Apple is well known for supporting even their old HW, you can easily run new iOS on old iPhones and iPads, new Mac OS on old Macs, so ATV3 is basically their first HW that seems to have been forgotten. I understand ATV4 is now a different OS, but I don't understand why they don't at the very least implement Apple Music in ATV3. Likewise, I have tried the new Remote app with my ATV3 and it's a disaster, it messed up my ATV so badly that not even the ATV remote worked anymore and I had to reset the box. Heck, I couldn't even stream Apple Music from my iPhone to ATV3, it didn't recognize the format. If this trend continues, ATV3 will soon be completely useless and this is not what we expect from Apple. Forget about "it just works" and the tight integration of all their devices, Apple has been making fun of how fragmented Android is, but it's already happening to them as well.

[deleted user]

Although an App Store for tvOS is a nice idea that can bring some interesting development, it sorts of defeats the initial purpose of the Apple TV which was a simple device to be used to watch/listen to content streamed from elsewhere (iTunes, your Mac/iPhone, content provider).

If the App Store becomes a full blown chaos of apps as the one for the iPhone, full of thousands of useless crapware apps, while making the Apple TV "complicated" to handle in the process, also in consideration of the limitations of its remote (and the last thing I want is to use a keyboard in front of a TV - I am trying to get away from the office when chilling in front of my TV in the evening!), I don't think I will download many apps at all.

I was actually a bit disappointed when I bought my 4th gen, 3 days ago, as I had to add apps to see Netflix and YouTube which are standard on the 3rd Gen. It took me like 10 plus mins, if not more, to see  something.
With the 3rd gen I was watching something in like 2 mins. The user experience with the passwords written one char at a time, app downloads required to see common content, etc made the whole experience worse that with the older device.
I hope tvOS will really bring some innovative UI experience features, because so far I don't see much of a benefit.

Ah, and BTW, Siri is not active on my Apple TV, the option to activate it is greyed out, and yes I do live in a country supported by Siri... Maybe because I have english UI and live in Germany it doesn'T want to work? why? my iPhone is configured the same way I can have Siri active in multiple different languages... ????