Although Apple’s charts inside the App Store for the new Apple TV are currently empty, developer Steve Troughton-Smith was able to sniff out which apps and games users have been downloading the most since the device’s debut last week.
As you could imagine, games absolutely dominate the charts, yet another indication that the new set-top box is popular as a casual gaming device. Here’s your list of top paid, free and grossing apps and games for the Apple TV 4, accompanied by a few interesting observations regarding app pricing and frame rates in popular games.
These charts were derived from a hack Troughton-Smith created in order to plug into an iTunes chart data backend.
Top Paid Apps in Overall:
- Beat Sports
- SimpleX
- Galaxy On Fire: Manticore Rising
- Lumino City
- Alto’s Adventure
- Does not Commute TV
- Battle Supremacy: Evolution
- Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved
- Shoot The Zombirds
- Oceanhorn
Top Free Apps in Overall:
- Rayman Adventures
- Crossy Road
- HBO NOW
- The Nat Geo TV
- FOX NOW
- Showtime
- HISTORY
- CNN Go
- CBS
- Asphalt 8: Airborne
Top Paid Games:
- Beat Sports
- Galaxy On Fire: Manticore Rising
- Does Not Commute TV
- Lumino City
- Alto’s Adventure
- Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved
- Battle Supremacy: Evolution
- Oceanhorn
- Shoot the Zombirds
- Shadowmatic
Top Free Games:
- Rayman Adventures
- Crossy Road
- Asphalt 8: Airborne
- Beach Buggy Racing
- Breakneck
- Mr Jump
- Disney Infinity 3.0: The Battle of Yavin Experience
- EDGE Extended
- Mr. Crab
- Jetpack Joyride
Console-quality graphics?
Troughton-Smith took it upon himself to measure frame rates that the most popular Apple TV games are capable of achieving, here’s a summary of his findings:
- Oceanhorn runs at 1080p in buttery smooth 60 frames per second
- Asphalt 8: Airborne in 1080p and no anti-aliasing does about 30-40 frames per second, with the lowest frame rate an abysmal 22 frames per second
- Disney Infinity runs at 55 frames per second (lowest: 42) in 720p
- Crossy Road is 1080p at 60 frames per second, no anti aliasing
- Breakneck in 1080p and no anti aliasing struggles to run at 45 frames per second, dips into the 30FPS range
- Beach Buggy Racing can run in either 720p or 1080p (no anti aliasing) at sixty FPS and offers a split-screen multiplayer as an In-App Purchase option
It’s interesting that many Apple TV games provide controls and sliders to select the resolution and graphics detail, which is common for PC games but not for console titles.
$4.99 is the new $0.99
Signing off, most games for the big screen are priced significantly higher than those for the iPhone and iPad. You could say that $4.99 is the new $0.99 in the tvOS App Store as many games cost $4.99, with some triple-A titles priced at $9.99.
For instance, Oceanhorn, Beat Sports and Geometry Wars 3 cost $9.99. Galaxy On Fire is $5.99, Lumino City and Battle Supremacy are a dollar less while games such as Alto’s Adventure, Does not Commute and SimpleX cost $2.99 a pop.
On the other hand, game developers have surprisingly opted to provide Apple TV games as free updates to their iPhone and iPad counterparts, meaning most of previously purchased games are waiting to be downloaded at no charge through the Purchased tab of the Apple TV’s App Store.
Games like Beat Sports, Rayman Adventures, Galaxy On Fire: Manticore Rising and SimpleX are available only for the Apple TV and as such cannot be downloaded without purchasing.
Source: Steve Troughton-Smith