It’s been an exciting year for Apple and its users — with groundbreaking news like a new iPad Pro, and a full version of Adobe Photoshop coming to the tablet in 2019 — and now that 2018 is coming to a close, it’s a good a time as any to look back on how far Apple has come.
When Apple’s App Store started out on July 10, 2008, it had a mere 500 apps. 10 years later, the store has expanded its repertoire to include an impressive collection of 2.2 million apps, earning iOS developers a total of over US$100 billion.

In fact, the App Store is now the world’s largest app marketplace, supporting and being supported by 20 million Apple developers and 1.3 billion active Apple devices worldwide. It has seen over 180 billion downloads to date, and brings over 500 million weekly visitors, with ‘Games’ ranking as its most popular category and its top-grossing — along with, ‘Entertainment’.
There’s also been a burgeoning space for Augmented Reality (AR), with 3000 AR apps on the App Store, ever since Apple kicked things off with the iOS 11. And Swift, Apple’s general purpose programming language, is gaining traction fast, with over 350,000 apps on the App Store written with it.
Just looking at those numbers’ gotten us curious about the top rankers out there — come on, with 2.2 million jostling for attention, the competition looks pretty stiff. So here’s a list of the iPhone and iPads’ most downloaded game and apps, not for the world but for Singapore.
After all, don’t we all know an Apple fan or two?
Most Downloaded iPhone Apps of 2018 – Singapore
The top paid iPhone app for 2018 is kirakira+, which — as its name suggests — adds a little extra bling to your photos and videos via camera filter. It seems to recognise light-emitting or reflective objects and puts on the glitz accordingly. Considering how we’re constantly whipping out our phone cameras nowadays, we suppose it isn’t too much of a surprise that this is on the top spot.
Coming in second is Forest – Stay focused, which gets you to ‘plant a (virtual) tree’ in-app, whenever you need to keep your attention on a task at hand. The tree dies if you close the app, so that’s… one way of keeping us off our phones, for those of us constantly feeling the need to pick up our mobiles and scroll through our social media feeds every ten minutes. The nice thing is that virtual coins spent on planting trees in-app will translate to real trees being planted in real life, because the developers have partnered with tree-planting organization, Trees for the Future, for this endeavour.
Third on the list is Gudak Cam, which tries to mimic shooting on film. After shooting a set of 24 photos, users will have to wait 3 days for the photos to ‘develop’ before they’re able to take more. It’s kind of a cute work-around for the burden of choice technology has saddled us with, and we can see why people may enjoy the novelty.
Check out the rest of the Top Ten apps below, both free and paid:
Rank | Top Free iPhone Apps | Rank | Top Paid iPhone Apps |
1 | WhatsApp Messenger | 1 | kirakira+ |
2 | YouTube: Watch, Listen, Stream | 2 | Forest – Stay focused |
3 | Grab App | 3 | Gudak Cam |
4 | 4 | TouchRetouch | |
5 | 5 | The Wonder Weeks | |
6 | Messenger | 6 | Afterlight 2 |
7 | Google Maps – Transit & Food | 7 | WatchChat for WhatsApp |
8 | Gmail – Email by Google | 8 | 8mm Vintage Camera |
9 | GrabFood – Food Delivery App | 9 | Analog Paris |
10 | 10 | ProCam 6 | |
11 | DBS PayLah! – Supports PayNow | 11 | AutoSleep Tracker for Watch |
12 | Spotify Music | 12 | Voice Recorder – HD Audio Recording & Playback |
13 | Carousell | 13 | Analog Seoul |
14 | Lazada 11.11 Biggest Sale | 14 | Halide Camera |
15 | TikTok-Global Video Community | 15 | PLOT |
16 | Google Maps – Transit & Food | 16 | Facetune |
17 | Google Chrome | 17 | CamToPlan PRO |
18 | Mobike – Smart Bike Sharing | 18 | NightCap Camera |
19 | Google Translate | 19 | FiLMiC Pro |
20 | Netflix | 20 | Slow Shutter Cam |
Most Downloaded iPhone Games of 2018 – Singapore
Minecraft is this year’s top paid mobile game, and we’re pretty sure you know what Minecraft is, but in case you don’t, it’s a game where you build stuff with blocks. There’s also a survival mode you can toggle on, if you’re not playing just to build massive palaces or insanely detailed reimaginings of Midgar.
Cytus II comes in second, and it’s a rhythm game with over 100 songs and nine playable characters.
Plague Inc is at number three, a real-time strategy game where players evolve a pathogen in an attempt to destroy the world, which… sounds like a perfect outlet for all our underlying nihilistic, misanthropic angst. We see the appeal.
You can take a look at the rest of the Top Ten free and paid games here:
Rank | Top Free iPhone Games | Rank | Top Paid iPhone Games |
1 | PUBG MOBILE | 1 | Minecraft |
2 | Rules of Survival | 2 | Cytus II |
3 | Fortnite | 3 | Plague Inc. |
4 | Mobile Legends: Bang Bang | 4 | Pocket Build |
5 | Helix Jump | 5 | Bloons TD 6 |
6 | Word Link – Word Puzzle Game | 6 | Heads Up! |
7 | MapleStory M | 7 | Exploding Kittens |
8 | Hole.io | 8 | Pocket Aquarium! |
9 | Brawl Stars | 9 | Nexomon |
10 | Love Balls | 10 | Monument Valley 2 |
11 | Sniper 3D Assassin: Gun Games | 11 | Street Fighter IV CE |
12 | Toon Blast | 12 | Cytus |
13 | Happy Glass | 13 | NBA 2K19 |
14 | Candy Crush Saga | 14 | Geometry Dash |
15 | Knife Hit | 15 | Cat Quest |
16 | Hello Stars | 16 | Hitman Sniper |
17 | Cliffhanger – Chat Stories | 17 | Assassin’s Creed Identity |
18 | Pokémon GO | 18 | Florence |
19 | 8 Ball Pool™ | 19 | Mini Metro |
20 | Choices: Stories You Play | 20 | Motorsport Manager Mobile 3 |
Most Downloaded iPad Apps of 2018 – Singapore
ProCreate is the iPad Pro’s top paid app, and we can see why, looking at some of the amazing works artists have created on it. It seems like a pretty nifty tool for digital artists who want to do work on the go.
Next on the list is GoodNotes 4, and yes, that’s a note-taking app. But it does have some interesting features, like searchable handwritten notes and converting handwriting to text. We’re just slightly curious if that still works assuming our handwriting’s absolutely atrocious.
Notability comes right after, and… that’s another note-taking app, sharing similar search and handwriting-to-text functions. Evidently, we’re all getting the iPad for sketching and note-taking. We’ve got to put that screen to use, after all.
The rest of the top free and paid apps are listed here:
Rank | Top Free iPad Apps | Rank | Top Paid iPad Apps |
1 | YouTube: Watch, Listen, Stream | 1 | Procreate |
2 | 2 | GoodNotes 4 | |
3 | Google Chrome | 3 | Notability |
4 | Netflix | 4 | Duet Display |
5 | The Calculator | 5 | MyScript Nebo |
6 | Messenger | 6 | GoodReader |
7 | Gmail – Email by Google | 7 | Affinity Photo |
8 | Google Drive | 8 | WinZip Pro: zip, unzip & rar |
9 | Toggle.sg | 9 | Book Creator for iPad |
10 | Microsoft Word | 10 | PDF Expert by Readdle |
11 | Spotify Music | 11 | Popplet |
12 | Microsoft Excel | 12 | Green Screen by Do Ink |
13 | Google Maps – Transit & Food | 13 | Noteshelf 2 |
14 | Viu HD | 14 | Affinity Designer |
15 | Microsoft PowerPoint | 15 | Amaziograph |
16 | YouTube Kids | 16 | Notepad+ Pro |
17 | Lazada 11.11 Biggest Sale | 17 | LumaFusion |
18 | Skype for iPad | 18 | Explain Everything Whiteboard |
19 | 19 | Pixelmator | |
20 | Adobe Acrobat Reader | 20 | Toca Hair Salon 3 |
Most Downloaded iPad Games of 2018 – Singapore
Like the iPhone, Minecraft and Cytus II comes in as first and second for the iPad’s top paid games. Ranking third, however, is Geometry Dash, a fairly standard platforming game, where you collect coins and dodge obstacles to reach the finishing line.
And here are the rest of the top free and paid iPad games:
Rank | Top Free iPad Apps | Rank | Top Paid iPad Apps |
1 | Rules of Survival | 1 | Minecraft |
2 | PUBG MOBILE | 2 | Cytus II |
3 | Fortnite | 3 | Geometry Dash |
4 | Mobile Legends: Bang Bang | 4 | Monument Valley 2 |
5 | ROBLOX | 5 | Football Manager Touch 2018 |
6 | Love Balls | 6 | Bloons TD 6 |
7 | Kick the Buddy | 7 | The Room: Old Sins |
8 | Bowmasters – Multiplayer Game | 8 | Old Man’s Journey |
9 | Hole.io | 9 | Plague Inc. |
10 | Helix Jump | 10 | Darkest Dungeon: Tablet Edition |
11 | Toon Blast | 11 | Terraria |
12 | Candy Crush Saga | 12 | The Game of Life |
13 | War Robots | 13 | LEGO Jurassic World |
14 | Sniper 3D Assassin: Gun Games | 14 | Iron Marines |
15 | Happy Glass | 15 | Pocket Build |
16 | Cooking Fever | 16 | Teen Titans Go! Figure |
17 | MapleStory M | 17 | Hidden Folks |
18 | Subway Surfers | 18 | Mini Metro |
19 | Piano Tiles 2 | 19 | Infinite Flight |
20 | Plants vs. Zombies 2 | 20 | Scribblenauts Unlimited |