Google Play reveals 2017’s best apps and games

Google Play announced today its list of the most popular mobile apps, games, and other content for 2017. Based on popularity alone, Nintendo’s Super Mario Run was the most downloaded new game of the year.

Google didn’t say how many downloads the game had on its Google Play store, but Nintendo has separately said that the game has had more than 200 million downloads across iOS and Android since its launch in December 2016.

Filling out the list: Bubble Witch 3 Saga was the No. 2 game, followed by Magic Tiles 3, CATS: Crash Arena Turbo Stars, and Ballz.

As far as movies go, Moana was the top movie of the year. Game of Thrones was the most popuolar TV show. Kendrick Lamar’s Humble was the top song, and Photo Editor — Beauty Camera & Photo Filters was the most downloaded new app.

Google Play’s best of 2017

The lists below are ranked in order of popularity.

Most popular new apps of 2017

  • Photo Editor – Beauty Camera & Photo Filters
  • What The Forecast?!!
  • Boomerang
  • Top Buzz Video: Viral Videos, Funny GIFs & TV shows
  • Yarn – Chat Fiction

Most popular new games of 2017

  • Super Mario Run
  • Bubble Witch 3 Saga
  • Magic Tiles 3
  • CATS: Crash Arena Turbo Stars
  • Ballz

Top five streamed songs of 2017

Top five movies of 2017

Top five TV shows of 2017

Top five books of 2017

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.