Apple Still Sees a Future in Gaming as Indie Games Week Highlights App Store Push

Seven years after Apple Arcade launched in 2019, Apple is still treating gaming as a core part of the App Store rather than a short lived experiment. The latest signal came this week with Indie Games Week, an App Store event built around independent games and new mobile releases.

Hardware, tools and curation

Carson Oliver, the new head of App Store Worldwide after Phil Schiller left the role in August, framed the push as an extension of the store's original mission. In an email interview with Polygon, Oliver said the App Store was built to level the playing field for discovery and distribution so an indie title can sit beside major entertainment franchises.

Oliver pointed to Apple's broader investment in gaming, including hardware accelerated ray tracing for the A20 Pro, the next generation vapor chamber in the iPhone 18 Pro, Game Porting Toolkit 4, Metal and open source Unity plug-ins. He also highlighted Creative Assets, a new feature that lets indie developers showcase artwork in search results and product page headers.

Indie Games Week and No Man's Sky

The event welcomed seven titles to iOS, including Vampire Crawlers, Sifu and Little Kitty, Big City. It also coincided with Apple announcing an ambitious mobile version of No Man's Sky from Hello Games. Hello Games said the port will include all ten years of updates in a 5GB game that can run on an iPhone 11.

Founder Sean Murray credited the growing power of Apple devices for making the port possible. Oliver said technologies like Game Porting Toolkit 4, MetalFX and the open source Unity plug-ins reduce the time, effort and cost of bringing PC and console games to Apple devices.

Premium mobile games keep growing

Oliver said more premium games are releasing on the App Store this year than last, alongside more console and PC franchises coming to mobile. He named Balatro, Stardew Valley, Slay the Spire and Bloons TD 6 as mobile success stories, with cozy games, management sims and roguelikes drawing players.

Apple has not provided its own figures, and Oliver did not confirm a July GamesIndustry.biz report that premium mobile game sales were up 77 percent in 2025. He said only that the company sees clear growth. Oliver also argued that iPhone and iPad matter for a generation whose first gaming device was a touchscreen.

Questions remain about the Vision Pro and about support from major publishers in 2026, but Oliver said Apple is not moving away from Apple Arcade. He described Arcade and paid downloads as distinct products giving developers flexible business models and players different ways to play.

Sources: Polygon