Apple Announces 15 New Arcade Games for the Holidays
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It’s been a little over five years since Apple launched Apple Arcade, its subscription gaming service, to much excitement and fanfare. While Apple promised more than 100 new games when it unveiled the service in March 2019, it fell a bit short of that when it arrived in September. Still, new titles kept being added weekly, and it hit its projected 100-game milestone by early November. Since then, it’s grown to over 250 games, and today, Apple is adding 15 more exciting titles for the holiday season.
Over the years, Apple has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Apple Arcade to help indie developers create games that aren’t driven by the negativity and pressure of “free-to-play” style monetization or laden with ads. Apple Arcade has also been fantastic for gamers since for only $4.99 — or even less as part of an Apple One bundle — you can access a massive library of games that are truly free to play. There are no ads, no in-app purchase schemes, just pure gaming enjoyment.
It’s not just for casual gamers, either. At launch, Apple announced it was working with Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi to create Fantasian an exclusive JRPG for Apple’s subscription service. The full game didn’t arrive until August 2021, but it was a massive hit, so much so that many folks lamented its Apple exclusivity; it remained playable only on Apple devices through Apple Arcade until his year, when Square Enix announced it was bringing it to consoles as Fantasian Neo Dimension.
While there are reports that Apple Arcade hasn’t been faring as well recently, Apple remains optimistic. It’s had to refocus a few times to ensure that the games align with the goals of its subscription service, as not every title is a good fit. Many early games were clearly “freemium” models, clumsily replacing in-app purchases with other methods of earning points, tokens, coins, and other rewards.
Apple has since been choosier about what it publishes on the service, which is fair considering it’s bankrolling many of these titles. Still, alongside fun casual games and remakes of classics like Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja, there are more premium titles like Overland 2, NBA 2K25, NFL Retro Bowl ’25, Sonic Dream Team, and Oceanhorn 2.
What’s Coming to Apple Arcade
On the fifth anniversary of Apple’s 100-game milestone, it’s timely that the company is announcing 15 more titles.
These won’t launch all at once — Apple is spacing them out over the entire holiday season, and some won’t launch until early next year. Here’s the full rundown:
Coming December 5th
Apple will kick off its first wave with several casual and classic arcade-style games, plus a classic city-builder for Vision Pro users.
- Talking Tom Blast Park
- Boggle: Arcade Edition
- PAC-MAN 256+
- Hot Wheels: Race Off+
- Barbie Color Creations+
- Little Cities: Diorama (for Apple Vision Pro)
Coming December 9th
Following those first six releases, the next phase will consist of two remakes in the Final Fantasy series, that reimagine the iconic 1991 game and its 2008 sequel with updated graphics, improved gameplay, and voice acting.
Coming January 9th
The final set of games will let you skateboard through the Big Apple in Skate City: New York by Snowman and Agens, enjoy tactical Chess-like strategies in Three Kingdoms Heroes, and return to the game that started the Final Fantasy franchise.
- Skate City: New York
- Gears & Goo (for Apple Vision Pro)
- Three Kingdoms HEROES
- FINAL FANTASY+
- Trials of Mana+
- Rodeo Stampede+
- It’s Literally Just Mowing+
While Apple Arcade is available on the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro, not all titles are available across all platforms. Except for a handful of Vision Pro exclusives, nearly everything on Apple Arcade can be played on the iPhone and iPad, while Mac and Apple TV support are slightly more limited. Nevertheless, a single $4.99 monthly subscription provides you and up to five other family members access to the entire library of games across all devices.
