On Friday, Apple officially launched the fourth-generation Apple TV, which for the first time included an App Store.
While Apple includes a list of featured apps, there are currently no other methods for discoverability, and users can't browse categories or Top Charts to find other Apple TV Apps that haven't been explicitly featured.
Currently, the Apple TV App Store only shows what's featured. If your game isn't featured, it effectively doesn't exist. There's no way to browse genres, top lists don't exist (this arguably might be a good thing), and finding something that isn't featured requires typing its name in the search field. Siri search doesn't work on apps (yet?) so the amount of friction to download a game like Highway Rider which didn't make the feature cut is not only incredible but also has resulted in three sales. (Well, make that four, as I bought it.)
After some digging, SlideToPlay'sJeff Scott discovered that Apple was already publishing Apple TV top lists, even if they weren't yet exposed anywhere. Scott has now compiled a realtime list of the top overall Apple TV apps as well as individual category lists for both free and paid apps.
At the time of this writing, the overall top 10 apps include:
Top 10 Paid
1 - Beat Sports (Apple TV Only) 2 - SimpleX - for Plex (Apple TV Only) 3 - Galaxy on Fire™ - Manticore RISING (Apple TV Only) 4 - Lumino City (+ Universal) 5 - Alto's Adventure (+ Universal) 6 - Does not Commute TV (Apple TV Only) 7 - Battle Supremacy: Evolution (+ Universal) 8 - Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved (+ Universal) 9 - Shoot The Zombirds (+ Universal) 10 - Oceanhorn ™ (+ Universal)
Top 10 Free
1 - Rayman Adventures (Apple TV Only) 2 - Crossy Road - Endless Arcade Hopper (+ Universal) 3 - HBO NOW (+ Universal) 4 - The Nat Geo TV (+ Universal) 5 - FOX NOW (+ Universal) 6 - SHOWTIME (+ Universal) 7 - HISTORY (+ Universal) 8 - CNNgo (Apple TV Only) 9 - CBS (+ Universal) 10 - Asphalt 8: Airborne (+ Universal)
Games make up the majority of the top spots in the Top Paid listings, while media apps dominate the Top Free listings. At the moment, Jeff Scott reports there are presently 996 Apple TV apps in the App Store. The full list on SlideToPlay covers the top 200, as well as the breakdown within different categories.
Monday October 27, 2025 7:55 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more.
Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1.
Release Date
Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
Wednesday October 29, 2025 4:22 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple is about to drop iOS 26.1, the first major point release since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least six notable changes and improvements to look forward to. We've rounded them up below.
Apple has already provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 26.1, which means Apple will likely roll out the update to all compatible...
Monday October 27, 2025 4:51 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple is designing an updated version of the Apple TV 4K, and rumors suggest that it could come out sometime in the next couple of months. We're not expecting a major overhaul with design changes, but even a simple chip upgrade will bring major improvements to Apple's set-top box.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
We've rounded up all the latest Apple TV rumors.
...
Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:07 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 updates for testing purposes. The RCs betas come a week after Apple released the fourth betas.
The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software...
Monday October 27, 2025 9:15 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple this month refreshed the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with its new M5 chip, and higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips are expected to follow in early 2026. However, these machines will represent the final update to the current design, with Apple reportedly developing a completely new version of the MacBook Pro packed with next-generation hardware...
Thursday October 30, 2025 4:42 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.
One thing worth...
Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:21 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of macOS Tahoe 26.1, which means the update will likely see a public launch next week.
The release candidate includes notes on what's in the update, so we have a full picture of the new features that Apple has included.
macOS Tahoe 26.1 adds AutoMix support over AirPlay, improved FaceTime audio...
Wednesday October 29, 2025 7:13 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Rumors are stoking excitement for the next-generation iPad mini that Apple is reportedly close to launching. So what should we expect from the successor to the iPad mini 7 that Apple released over a year ago? Read on to find out.
Processor and Performance
Apple is working on a next-generation version of the iPad mini (codename J510/J511) that features the A19 Pro chip, according to...
Tuesday October 28, 2025 5:27 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple is preparing to bring support for its digital car key feature to Jetour vehicles, according to evidence uncovered on Apple's backend by MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris.
Introduced in 2022, Car Keys allows an iPhone or Apple Watch to unlock a vehicle through the Wallet app. A digital version of a car key is stored in Wallet, and unlocking can be done by holding an Apple Watch or...
What, so the category tab is missing? Apple will add it, it's probably missing since there isn't a ton of apps. They don't even need to update for that.
I own it, it's insanely fast, insanely smooth, and leaps and bounds better than the old one. For the love of God, I never had to do TV remote codes.... That's magical. Siri works well, it's easier to find content across apps.
The Netflix app isn't fully baked, but that isn't Apple. And Siri cannot control music, or find any to add. That's missing.
But other than that, it streams faster, better, navigating is leaps and bounds better, and it's just so smooth.
You people groaning don't own it, and you sure as hell are part of the **** show In this world.
I own the atv 2&3 (retired the 2) and a chrome cast and a fire TV. Chrome cast sucks (as does all miracast devices, AirPlay just rules) and the Fire TV search only does Amazon stuff, and is nowhere near as fast and smooth. The Siri controller is really the way to navigate tv. Apple nailed that.
It's a huge promising product with a lot of power. It's almost perfect right now.
There was a screen shot at the September event that clearly shows top charts and category options. Maybe Apple is waiting for more apps to be available to turn it on?
I have my complaints about this device by my god it's only been on sale for a few days. I think it's silly for developers to be freaking out about discoverability after only a couple days on sale. If a month from now we still don't have a good way to search for apps then yeah complain away.
They need to sort this quickly otherwise developers aren't going to bother at all and go elsewhere.
I guess a featured only section does encourage higher production values but the visibility is so poor that an indie developer is going to drown without a 5-figure marketing budget.
As a developer with a tvOS app in the store, this is totally unacceptable. My app effectively does not exist in the store unless you search for it.
Why should I even bother? I am assuming once they add categories that they will be sorted by newest -- meaning that the launch apps will just be very far back on the list.
