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iOS 26 Games: What to expect from Apple's first dedicated gaming app
Apple has made efforts in recent years to try and shake off its reputation for giving games and gamers short shrift. it now regularly touts the gaming capabilities of its phones and computers during product launch events and even launched its own subscription gaming service six years ago. With iOS 26, Apple's taking another step to bolster its gaming bona fides, bringing a dedicated Games app to the iPhone.
Games, which is also coming to iPads and Macs in the respective iPadOS 26 and macOS 26 updates, figures to be a one-stop app for all your gaming needs on whatever device you're using it. The app gives you access to all the games currently installed on your device — and indeed, all the games you've ever downloaded. And you'll get the chance to discover new games, too, whether it's through Apple's recommendations or by seeing what your friends are playing.
Why launch a dedicating gaming app now? Because the iPhone has turned into quite the gaming device over the years. Ann Thai, Apple's senior director for marketplace platforms and technologies, told the audience at WWDC 2025 that half-a-billion people play games on the iPhone. The Games app sounds like it's Apple's attempt to give those people a more cohesive experience that keeps them playing and trying out new games.
I've taken a brief tour of the Games app as it stands in the iOS 26 developer beta, and I'll certainly have to spend more time with the new arrival before I can say whether it will be a regular destination on my iPhone. But right now, I can tell you what to expect the first time you fire up the Games app, whether that's after you install the iOS 26 developer beta, wait for the public beta or hold out for iOS 26's full release this fall.
The Games app is represented by a red icon featuring a rocket ship in flight. Launch it, and you'll immediately see an interface with four tabs at the bottom of the screen, accompanied by a search button that expands to let you search for games by name and genre.
Here's what you'll see in each tab of the Games app.
Launch the Games app, and you'll land on the Home tab, which is topped by a rotating carousel touting different games you can download from the App Store. Below that, a Continue Playing area offers a side-scrolling list of all your downloaded games, organized in the order you last played them.
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Tap on a game's icon in the Continue Play strip, and the game launches on your phone. And if you tap on a game that's not installed, you'll go to a screen within the Games app that lets you download the game onto your iPhone.
As you scroll down the Home tab, the next section will show what your Game Center friends are playing, listing the games and how many friends have played that game. You'll also see Game Center icons showing the first initial of the friends playing that particular game. Tap on any of the games, and you'll have the option of downloading them or finding out more about them via a preview.
Further down the screen, the Games app features Top Played Games based on App Store rankings, followed by gaming categories discovering new titles. After that, you'll encounter recommendations, which suggest similar titles to the games you've already played.
There's also a section amid the Game app's recommendations that highlights games that work well with controllers. Apple indicated during its WWDC presentation that the Games app would work well with third-party input devices, which will be good news for anyone who makes the best game controllers.
The Arcade tab is where you access Apple Arcade if you subscribe to the $6.99/month gaming service. As with the home tab, you'll be able to launch your favorite Apple Arcade games here and discover new titles you want to play.
The Play Together tab is meant to put Apple's easily-forgotten Game Center to use. That service launched way back with iOS 4, and it lets you assemble a list of friend who you can challenge to mulitplayer games or compare high scores for bragging rights.
All your Game Center pals appear in a list that displays the most recent game they've been playing. Tap on that entry, and you can get a closer view of the game, even downloading it to your phone.
The real highlight to the Play Together tab rests at the top of the screen where you can challenge Game Center friends to competitions. You can either set up challenges by selecting players or picking a specific game first.
It's clear that Apple sees the Play Together tab as a key part of the Games app. At WWDC, the company talked up challenges that game makers will be able to add to their apps using Game Center-based leaderboards. Clearly, that's something we'll see more of in the fall, as app makers get a chance to use the beta and Apple's developer tools to build out challenges.
Of all the tabs in Games, Library is the most straightforward. It's essentially a list of every game you've ever downloaded from the App Store. You can sort that list by a game's name or whether you've played it recently. Additional filters let you list only installed games, those that work with controllers and Apple Arcade titles.
The top of the Library screen features an Updates and Events button where you can stay abreast of updates to your favorite games as well as any upcoming events involving gameplay — think competitive tournaments and similar events.
Below that, there's also an Achievements button where you can gaze upon the various Game Center achievements you've racked up from different iOS games over the years.
Poking around the Games app, it struck me as odd that the Play Together tab didn't offer a way to easily add new Game Center friends. As it turns out, though, you can do that from anywhere in the app — you just need to know where to look.
In the upper right corner of the screen when you pick a Games app tab, there's a circle with your initial in it — that's the Game Center control panel, and tapping it lets you edit your profile, invite friends and accept any pending friend requests. That's a good addition, as the current version of iOS makes you go into Settings to add Game Center friends — not exactly an intuitive way to go about things.
Apple's News app has become a nice source of games, from crosswords to sudoku puzzles, so yes, it appears in the Games app. However, it's the full News app icon. Tapping it does take you to that app's Puzzles screen, but if you see your friends using the News app in Play Together, there's no way to tell which puzzle they favor.
It's nice to have all your iOS games in one place, but the real promise of the Games app is bringing multiplayer game player to the forefront of the iPhone. Seeing what kind of challenges developers come up with by the time iOS 26 launches will also go a long way toward determining just how vibrant an app Games will wind up being.
