Continuing a trend that's been ongoing for 18 months, Apple's editorial teams in the US and UK generated lists of their 'best' (presumably favourite) games of 2014, both of which included more paid games than you'd expect.

That Monument Valley and Threes were feted as the Game of the Year, respectively for iPad and iPhone, wasn't a surprise, however.

Both games have received big promotional pushes from Apple throughout 2014; most recently during the charitable (Red) campaign.

Think different

Indeed, it could be argued both games have found critical acclaim and as much commercial success as can be expected as paid content in an ecosystem that's massively dominated by free-to-play content.

After all, as we pointed out at the start of the 2014, Apple's power to push paid content isn't as strong as many may think.

Nevertheless, that 12 of the 28 titles highlighted in the Best of 2014 list in the US and 13 of the 26 titles highlighted in the UK were paid games suggests that Apple remains determined to highlight the sort of content it thinks will differentiate it from Google Play /Android, rather than what iOS users are actually playing.