With iOS 26, Apple launched a standalone Video games app.
At first look, it seems to be like a brand new dwelling for cellular titles. However beneath the floor, this launch represents one thing extra necessary: Apple is making a devoted distribution layer for video games, distinct from the App Retailer.
A standalone hub for video games
The Video games app consolidates discovery throughout iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. The place the App Retailer presents video games alongside each different class, the Video games app is concentrated solely on play.
Whereas this new app reframes Apple’s relationship to gaming, for progress groups, this marks the beginning of a new playbook.
The expertise is algorithm-driven. Suggestions adapt to downloads, play exercise, and private pursuits, decreasing Apple’s reliance on editorial groups to push visibility. Social loops are embedded from the beginning, with challenges and Recreation Heart actions designed to drive multiplayer interplay and re-engagement.
Maybe most significantly, Apple is positioning iOS gadgets as console-like machines. With panorama layouts, controller parity, and devoted cross-device help, the Video games app makes the iPad really feel nearer to a handheld console than ever earlier than.
Discovery contained in the Video games app
Search within the Video games app works otherwise than within the App Retailer.
As of now, there are not any editorial collections & no Apple Arcade placements.
Search outcomes additionally show In-App Occasions instantly beneath the product card, giving titles a chance to look twice for a similar question, and get larger real-estate in Search End result.
Nonetheless, the way in which creatives are displayed shifts considerably. Portrait screenshots seem smaller than within the App Retailer. Panorama property are elongated. Movies appear to require 5.5-inch codecs quite than the 6.5-inch property that the majority publishers have optimized for.
Even the decision to motion has modified. As a substitute of a direct “Get” button, customers are offered with “View” and should enter the product web page earlier than they’ll obtain. This provides a small however significant layer of friction, and it will increase the significance of conversion optimization on the product web page itself.
Product pages: Shorter and leaner
The Video games app product web page is a stripped-down model of what customers see within the App Retailer. Featured evaluations, “What’s New,” App Privateness, “Featured In,” and “Extra by Developer” are all absent. The result’s a shorter funnel, with fewer distractions but in addition much less social proof.
One caveat for entrepreneurs: Product Web page Optimization experiments don’t seem within the Video games app. This implies groups can not depend on Apple’s PPO framework to check creatives right here. If the Video games app turns into a significant supply of installs, testing methods might want to adapt.
Measurement and analytics
In November 2025, App Retailer Join will start reporting Video games-specific metrics. These will embody impressions, web page views, downloads, opens, and conversion charges. Importantly, new supply varieties will probably be launched, together with Video games Search and Video games Browse.
This may lastly give publishers the power to separate site visitors from the Video games app versus the App Retailer, and to measure whether or not the brand new channel is cannibalizing current discovery or including incremental attain. Till then, any optimization effort stays a wager with out exact return measurement.
Getting ready for the shift
The launch of the Video games app requires a number of tactical changes:
- Refresh 5.5-inch video property and test that their portrait and panorama screenshots maintain up beneath the brand new layouts.
- Run In-App Occasions constantly, each to look twice in search and to re-engage lapsed customers.
- Experiment with Recreation Heart challenges, as Apple seems intent on making these social loops a core a part of the Video games expertise.
- Metadata and Apple Tags will grow to be much more essential for algorithm-driven discovery.
- If related, showcase iPad & Mac gameplay in creatives together with controller use, to sign cross-device legitimacy.
A workflow for November and past
As soon as Video games analytics go dwell, progress groups ought to construct a recurring workflow to identify alternatives, benchmark towards rivals, and adapt creatives. Right here’s the right way to:
1. Begin along with your subcategory
Navigate to your sport’s subcategory within the Video games app and overview the top-ranking titles. That is your quick aggressive set.
2. Test what occasions are dwell
Establish which rivals are working In-App Occasions. Notice frequency, themes, and timing. Are they seasonal, challenge-based, or tied to content material drops?
You should use Cell Motion In-App Occasion discovery to discover what others are doing and get impressed. Go to App > In App Occasions > Decide App Occasions Tab & Add your Opponents to see Reside Occasions or discover Ended Occasions to get impressed.
3. Audit inventive decisions
Take note of the movies and screenshots rivals are utilizing. Are they optimized for the smaller portrait show or elongated panorama? Do they spotlight iPad and controller play?
4. Cross-reference with metrics
Use App Retailer Join to trace whether or not your Video games impressions and downloads spike throughout sure sorts of occasions. Evaluate your outcomes to rivals’ seen exercise.
5. Feed learnings again into your roadmap
Preserve an IAE calendar that stacks overlapping occasions. Refresh creatives the place you see rivals outperforming. Deal with this as an ongoing cycle quite than a one-off test.
This workflow has the additional benefit of supplying you with a relentless stream of inventive inspiration. Even when you can’t replicate a competitor’s precise technique, monitoring their IAEs and inventive rotations will enable you refine your individual positioning contained in the Video games app.
What this implies for discovery
The query stays: will the Video games app shift discovery away from the App Retailer?
The reply is probably going gradual quite than absolute.
The App Retailer will stay the entry level for informal customers. However the Video games app is designed to seize consideration and time spent, not simply transactions. It’ll reward publishers who feed it with ongoing occasions, challenges, and social engagement.
The winners on this new surroundings will probably be those that strategy their App Retailer presence as if it have been a console storefront. Meaning designing for discovery, optimizing for algorithm-first feeds, and advertising and marketing with the Video games app as a parallel funnel quite than an afterthought.
That is clearly Apple repositioning iOS as a gaming platform. For the primary time, Apple is treating video games as extra than simply one other App Retailer class.
With MobileAction, you may observe In-App Occasions, benchmark your sport’s visibility, analyze creatives that dominate discovery, and measure actual aggressive influence throughout each the App Retailer and the Video games app.
E book a demo with our specialists in the present day and begin constructing data-driven methods that assist your sport stand out on this new surroundings.
In regards to the writer
Julie Tonna is an iOS Progress Marketing consultant and the Founding father of NeoAds, serving to cellular groups scale their progress by way of inventive technique and App Retailer optimization.
Subscribe to her newest insights on Substack to remain forward of the evolving cellular app advertising and marketing ecosystem.
