Google Play announces best apps, users’ choice winners

While “best” is probably not the adjective we will associate most with 2020, we’re still at that point in time when “best of” lists are supposed to come out. And while some like YouTube have chosen not to come up with a year-end compilation, Google Play says life goes on and have now announced what the best apps and games were for this life-changing and world-changing year. They also shared the winners of the users’ choice awards, voted by the users themselves.

For the apps that Google chose as the best for this year, it’s Loóna: Bedtime Calm & Relax for the app while Genshin Impact has been chosen as the Best Game for 2020. For the app of the year, it has been chosen because Google believes it was able to blend ingenuity and delight in a “beautifully designed and thoughtfully executed” app. It’s an app that helps users sleep through immersive 3D sleepscapes. As for the best game of 2020, the free-to-play RPG game has been hailed as a “compelling, accessible, genre-defining” experience.

Google has also cited several apps as the best in specific categories: Everyday Essentials, Personal Growth, Hidden Gems, For Fun, and Apps for Good. These reflect the evolution of how apps have been used this year when all of us were all just trying to survive this pandemic. For example, Zoom is part of the Essentials list, Centr (that app with Chris Hemsworth working out) is part of Personal Growth, and REFACE is in the For Fun list.

For the Users’ Choice awards, the results are localized given the massive scale of the apps in the Google Play Store. For the U.S. results, Disney+ app was chosen as the app of the year by those who voted while Spongebob: Krusty Cook-Off was the best game as determined by users. It looks like parents were looking for things to keep kids (or themselves) entertained. Bad Boys for Life was the “best” movie and Stephen King’s If It Bleeds was voted as the best book.

If you’d like to see the best in your territory, just clock on the Best of 2020 banner at the top of your Google Play app. There’s also a Best of 2020 section in the Play Store for all the other lists.