Carson Oliver, Apple’s head of App Store Worldwide, has given his first interview since taking the role, and it covers how Apple sees games on iPhone and iPad. He says more premium games are releasing on the App Store this year than last, and that Apple Arcade and the main store are two products for different audiences.
Oliver answered questions from Polygon by email during Indie Games Week, the App Store event that began Monday. He took over after Phil Schiller left the role in August. Apple featured seven games for the week, including Sifu, Vampire Crawlers, No Man’s Sky, Little Kitty, Big City, 9 Kings, Dome Keeper and Yes, Your Grace 2: Snowfall.
Oliver says premium games are growing on the App Store
Oliver said Apple has seen “incredible growth” of games on the App Store. Many of the new premium releases are indies, he said, while more console and PC franchises are also arriving on mobile.
He would not confirm whether a July industry figure showing premium mobile game sales up 77 percent in 2025 matches Apple’s own numbers. Apple rarely shares player data, so the growth claim is hard to measure from the outside.
Oliver credits a generational shift in how people play, noting that for many younger players the first gaming device was an iPhone with a touchscreen, which makes direct touch their primary controller. He says cozy games, management sims and roguelikes are doing especially well, and he named Balatro, Stardew Valley, Slay the Spire and Bloons TD 6 as mobile success stories.
Apple points to the A20 Pro and new developer tools
On hardware, Oliver pointed to hardware-accelerated ray tracing in the A20 Pro and the next-generation vapor chamber in the iPhone 18 Pro. On software, he named Game Porting Toolkit 4, Metal, MetalFX and Apple’s open-source Unity plug-ins. He says those tools cut the time, effort and cost of bringing PC and console games to Apple devices.
No Man’s Sky is the best example of that approach, since Hello Games is bringing the game to iPhone and iPad later this month with every major update included. According to Polygon, the port is about 5GB and runs on an iPhone 11.
Discovery is the other half of the pitch. Apple relies on a global editorial team for what it calls human curation, and it recently launched a feature called Creative Assets. It lets indie developers choose their own artwork for search results and product page headers. Oliver said the App Store was built to level the playing field for discovery and distribution, “so that an indie title can sit shoulder-to-shoulder with the biggest entertainment franchises.”
Apple Arcade stays even as Vampire Crawlers skips it
Vampire Crawlers launched on the App Store instead of joining Apple Arcade, which raised questions about the subscription’s future. Oliver signaled that nothing is changing. Apple Arcade is still getting new content, including the recent Sneaky Sasquatch expansion, which adds birdwatching and a Subway Surfers crossover.
Apple wants developers to have flexible business model options, Oliver said. A game like Balatro can succeed as a premium download and also find a home in Apple Arcade, and developers get to pick the best fit for each game.
Polygon points to a few open questions, since Apple has reportedly cut Vision Pro production because of weak sales and publishers like Capcom and Ubisoft have not shown the same level of support in 2026 that they did in 2023. The next big test is October 28, when No Man’s Sky launches on iPhone and iPad.
