• Squad Busters has nabbed the 2024 Apple Award for iPad Game of the Year
• It sits pretty alongside Balatro+ and AFK Journey, which also took home major awards
• Squad Busters has a rough launch, but has since clawed its way back to prominence

Squad Busters, although it was a quality release, had a bit of a lacklustre launch for Supercell. Disappointing, especially considering how rare it is to see the Finnish mobile giant push a new release into global launch after axing so many underperformers.

However, over time Squad Busters seems to have found its footing, and the latest vindication for Supercell's decision to push it out the door has been a very special award. Squad Busters would take home Game of the Year for iPad at the 2024 edition of the Apple App Store Awards.

AFK Journey from Farlight Games, meanwhile, would take home the gold for iPhone Game of the Year. While Balatro+ would (quite rightfully) receive the award for Apple Arcade Game of the Year. So all in all, Squad Busters is sitting pretty with some other high-profile names.

The stumbling of Squad Busters on release was definitely a cause for concern, smugness and general interest among everyone from mobile business tycoons to the average player. "How-", it was asked, "-did Supercell of all people put out a dud after being so dedicated to finding their next billion-dollar superhit?"

Well, I think this award at least indicates it had nothing to do with the content itself. Having played it I felt that it was a perfectly good mix of battle royale and MOBA. But perhaps, after floating so many different ideas that stood on their own, a mix of Supercell IPs was simply not what players were in the mood for.

I don't reckon the debate is done yet, but this is an early Christmas treat for the folks at Supercell who can at least rest easy that someone recognised their hard work.

If you want to see where our own Pocket Gamer Awards ranked some of the releases this year, why not take a gander?