The Mobile Game Takeover
Who doesn’t love taking a trip down memory lane? The beginnings of the App Store were an incredible time for everyone, consumers, developers, and marketers to explore what Apple had to offer. The result is a long list of successful games that received millions, if not billions, of downloads over the next decade. Have you played every game on this list?
1. Angry Birds
Arguably one of the most well-recognized early iPhone games, Angry Birds dominated screens for years, even reaching the silver screen in 2016. The first game was created in 2009, and actually saved Finnish media company Rovio from bankruptcy.
Miguel Discart from Bruxelles, Belgique on Wikimedia
2. Where’s My Water?
Where’s My Water? Is a puzzle-based video game that was released back in 2011. The game was created by the studio Creature Feeb and was published by Disney Mobile. While it might not have meant much to us as kids, the main character, Swampy, is voiced by actor Justin T. Bowler.
3. Temple Run
Temple Run was released by Imangi Studios back in 2011. It’s considered an endless runner game, where you must try to escape the temple with an ancient relic without being captured by the demonic monkeys that are chasing you.
4. Cut The Rope
Cut the Rope is a physics-based game that requires you to feed a little green creature, named Om Nom, a piece of candy. The franchise was created by ZeptoLab, and the original game came out in 2010.
5. Doodle Jump
Doodle Jump was published by Lima Sky LLC in 2009. Its simple tilt to move controls and adorable art style make it one of the most popular games on the App Store, at one point selling 25,000 copies of the game every day for four consecutive months.
6. Fruit Ninja
Fruit Ninja was developed by Halfbrick and released in 2010. The game asks players to slice fruit by swiping on their touchscreen, while avoiding bombs that also get thrown into the air. The game had over 1 billion downloads by 2015.
7. Candy Crush Saga
Candy Crush Saga first came out on Facebook in 2012, before reaching iOS a few months later. The tile-matching game has players swapping colored pieces of candy to match three or more pieces of the same color. The game had 2.7 billion downloads five years after its mobile release.
Aubrey Morandarte from Guildford or Coventry, England on Wikimedia
8. Subway Surfers
Subway Surfers is an endless runner game that first came out in 2012. The game opens with your character, Jake, graffitiing the side of a train. When spotted by police, you start running. Subway Surfers was the first game on Google Play to pass 1 billion downloads.
9. Jetpack Joyride
Jetpack Joyride was another endless runner game that first came out in 2011, although it was set as a side-scroller rather than front-facing. Travelling through the secret lab via jetpack, players move the character, Barry, up and down by touching a finger to the screen.
10. Crossy Road
Video game developer Hipster Whale released Crossy Road in November 2014. The game is considered a modern version of Frogger, although it differs in that it’s an endless runner game. The game has an adorable cube-like 3-D design and features many, many adorable characters to play as.
11. Clash Of Clans
Clash of Clans is a 2012 mobile strategy video game that was published by Supercell. The game requires players to build and upgrade their own village using resources accumulated from attacking other players. Players get to decide who they want to work with and against, making this a fun group game as well.
12. Words With Friends
Words With Friends was developed by Newtoy back in 2009. The app follows a standard two-player Scrabble game, but has a more nuanced scoring situation than Scrabble allows for. You don’t have to always play with friends, however, as there was a randomized opponent option as well.
13. Plague Inc.
Plague Inc. was a 2012 strategy simulation game that was based on the 2008 browser game Pandemic 2. In the game, players must try to create a deadly pathogen that annihilates the human population. The game does have an updated version that came out on PC in 2015, and the company also released a physical board game in 2017.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on Unsplash
14. The Sims
The Sims found their way into every nook and cranny of online life, and there were several editions to enjoy in the early days of iPhone games. Sims 3, Sims 3 Ambitions, Sims 3 World Adventures, and Sims Medieval were all available through the App Store in 2011.
15. Geometry Dash
This game is a side-scrolling platformer that first came out in 2013. It was created by Swedish game developer Robert Topala. Each level of Geometry Dash required players to navigate music-based levels and avoid obstacles at the same time.
16. Flappy Bird
Flappy Bird was a controversial mobile game that first came out in 2013. The game was created by Vietnamese artist and programmer, Dong Nguyen, and required players to navigate a pixelated bird through a series of pipes. The game’s addictive nature eventually caused Nguyen to take the game down in February 2014.
daveynin from United States on Wikimedia
17. Heads Up!
Heads Up! Was an app created by the Ellen DeGeneres Show inspired by a segment that regularly occurred on the popular TV program. The game was released in 2013 and received 650,000 downloads in its first month.
18. Monument Valley
Monument Valley was a puzzle-based indie game that came out in April 2014. Players were required to move the character, known as Princess Ida, through a series of optical illusions. The game's art style was stunning and was based on Japanese prints and minimalist sculpture.
19. 2048
2048 is a sliding puzzle game that first came out in 2014. The game is simple: slide numbered tiles on a 4 x 4 grid to eventually get to the number 2048. Gabriele Cirulli was only 19 when he created the game as a weekend test to see if he could program a game from scratch.
20. Hill Climb Racing
Hill Climb Racing was a physics-based racing game that was originally published by Fingersoft. The game controls a driver over various terrains while collecting coins that they can use to upgrade their vehicles. While the game’s art style is quite basic, the game was quite addictive.
