Revealed: Apple's App Of The Year 2014 For iPhone, iPad

Apple has picked Elevate as its iPhone App of the Year as part of its “Best of 2014,” a list highlighting the top content released on iTunes. The content chosen by iTunes doesn’t just take into account chart position or gross downloads, but is picked from a mix of chart-toppers and staff favorites.

Elevate is a brain training program that has been downloaded more than 5 million times from the App Store and Google Play. Though anyone can download and sample some of its activities, users have to pay a $4.99 a month to unlock its full library of games and exercises.

The runner up was Instagram’s Hyperlapse, which lets users create timelapse videos without the need for tripods and other stabilization equipment. “Threes,” a number puzzle that has spawned a number of clones such as “2048,” took the spot for Game of the Year. The $2.99 game has users sliding tiles on a playing board to match numbers in an attempt to reach larger multiples of three.

On the iPad, Pixelmator was named App of the Year, thanks to its extensive set of tools that bring desktop-class image editing to Apple’s latest tablets, including the iPad Air 2. “Monument Valley,” a visual puzzle that takes some of its inspiration from the works of M.C. Escher, took the title of iPad’s Game of the Year.

On the music and video side, Apple chose a number of chart-toppers, including Beyoncé for Best Artist, “Taylor Swift’s “1989” for Best Album, and “Guardians of the Galaxy” for Best Blockbuster. In addition to the “Best of 2014” list, Apple has also named its top-charting apps for 2014, some of which include YouTube, “Clash of Clans” and “Minecraft”.