The Apple TV might be my favourite system that Apple makes. Whereas the Apple TV app is in dire want of some fundamental enhancements, the {hardware} field itself is a standout—particularly in comparison with rivals like Amazon’s Fireplace TV and Roku’s streaming units. That is largely due to the stellar Siri Distant, which makes navigating the system together with your fingers or voice a cinch, and the highly effective Apple silicon chip inside that makes the Apple TV’s working system, tvOS, run buttery clean.
Nevertheless, with regards to being a tool meant to take a seat on the heart of your front room as an all-encompassing leisure hub, the Apple TV is missing in a single large division: gaming. The Apple TV is technically a gaming console, since it could possibly play rudimentary video games and helps third-party console controllers. However nobody is prone to change their PlayStation or Xbox with one any time quickly, as a result of the present Apple TV lacks the processing energy to run console-quality video games.
But maybe that might be altering. Not too long ago, I’ve observed that Apple has been making strikes that counsel the corporate could also be on the cusp of turning the Apple TV right into a full-blown PlayStation and Xbox competitor. Doing so would open up one other potential billion-dollar income stream for the corporate.
The brand new Apple Video games app is at present MIA from tvOS 26
At Apple’s Worldwide Builders Convention (WWDC) this yr, the corporate unveiled a brand new cross-device app known as Apple Video games. The app acts as a central hub and launcher for all of the video games you’ve ever purchased on Apple’s App Retailer or have entry to through the corporate’s Apple Arcade subscription service.
The Apple Video games app additionally provides you fast entry to sport occasions and challenges, and helps you uncover new video games to play and see what video games your mates are taking part in. In different phrases, the brand new Apple Video games app is just like the PlayStation 5 Sport Hub and the Xbox Dashboard—the interfaces on the consoles that considerably differentiate the lounge gaming expertise from PCs.
Apple introduced that Apple Video games is coming to the iPhone, iPad, and Mac with iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26 this fall. However the brand new app is conspicuously absent from the Apple TV’s subsequent working system, tvOS 26, which additionally ships this fall. It is a notable omission, particularly contemplating that Apple markets its Apple Arcade gaming service as a core function of the Apple TV expertise. It additionally provides 1000’s of mobile-level video games via the tvOS App Retailer.
The extra I take into consideration the Apple Video games omission from tvOS 26, the extra it is smart—if Apple is about to show the Apple TV into a real gaming console however doesn’t need anybody to realize it but.
[Photo: Apple]
The subsequent Apple TV is rumored to have two key {hardware} enhancements important to top-line gaming consoles
Apple doesn’t replace the Apple TV as typically because it does iPhones and even its iPads. Sometimes, years move between Apple TV updates. The newest Apple TV, the Apple TV 4K, was final up to date in November 2022, practically three years in the past. Meaning it’s ripe for an replace this yr.
Rumors counsel {that a} new Apple TV is certainly coming later this yr and that it’ll function two vital {hardware} upgrades—ones that might allow it to change into a real gaming console.
The primary is an up to date chipset. The present Apple TV 4K options the Apple A15 Bionic chip, the identical one discovered within the iPhone 13 from 2021. Most individuals count on the subsequent Apple TV to get a major improve—maybe to the A18 or A18 Professional, discovered within the present iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Professional sequence, or maybe even the unreleased A19 chip, which can go into this yr’s iPhone 17 sequence. It’s additionally doable Apple may put the M1 or M2 chip, beforehand present in Macs and iPads, into the brand new Apple TV.
This bounce from the A15 to the A18, A19, M1, or M2 would give the Apple TV the efficiency enhance it must run AAA console video games, such because the Resident Evil sequence from Capcom, that are at present able to operating (with controller help, no much less) on the iPhone 15 Professional, due to its A17 Professional chip.
One other improve the subsequent Apple TV is predicted to get is a brand new Apple-designed Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chipset that can help the Wi-Fi 7 normal (through MacRumors). This normal provides decrease latency and quicker Wi-Fi speeds than the present Wi-Fi 6 normal—one thing crucial for gaming consoles and the bandwidth-hungry video games that stream to them. The main video games console, the PlayStation 5 Professional, at present provides Wi-Fi 7 help.
In different phrases, the {hardware} parts Apple wants to show the subsequent Apple TV right into a PlayStation and Xbox competitor are all within the pipeline. And, more and more, so is one thing else the Apple TV would wish to change into a real gaming console: growing dedication to Apple’s platforms from main video games studios.
Extra AAA video games are hitting the Mac—and iPhone—than ever earlier than
Within the online game trade, the highest video games are often known as AAA (triple-A) titles. These are the video games with essentially the most superior graphics and the most important budgets, and are often the highlights of the console gaming expertise.
Traditionally, AAA sport builders have shied away from releasing their main titles on the Mac (the Apple system with the {hardware} energy most corresponding to skilled gaming consoles). However up to now yr, that’s modified loads, due to Apple’s transfer to make sport growth on the Mac simpler and more cost effective than ever, due to instruments like the corporate’s Sport Porting Toolkit 3 and the hardware-accelerated graphics API, Metallic 4, which makes graphics-intensive video games look higher on Mac and iPhone. Contemplating Apple units are extra common than ever, sport studios stand to financially profit by bringing their greatest titles to Apple’s platforms and their tens of millions of customers.
In July alone, two main AAA titles made their debut on the Mac: CD Projekt Crimson’s Cyberpunk 2077: Final and Deep Silver’s Lifeless Island 2. Different main AAA titles have additionally been launched on the Mac over the previous few years, together with Ubisoft’s Murderer’s Creed: Shadows and Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown, Treatment’s Management Final Version, Kojima Productions’ Dying Stranding Director’s Lower, Spherical 8 Studio’s Lies of P, 11 Bit Studios’ Frostpunk 2, and Capcom’s Resident Evil sequence remastered editions. Moreover, extra AAA titles are coming to the Mac this yr, together with IO Interactive’s Hitman World of Assassination, InZOI Studio’s InZOI, and Pearl Abyss’ Crimson Desert.
Most of those video games require an M1 sequence chip or later, discovered within the firm’s Apple Silicon Macs launched since 2020. Some, just like the Resident Evil sequence, may even run on the A17 Professional and later, first launched in 2023. Apple’s present A18 Professional is roughly equal to the M1 by way of efficiency, and if Apple places it, the M1 or M2, or the upcoming A19 Professional, inside the subsequent Apple TV, as anticipated, there isn’t a purpose these AAA video games that at present run on the Mac couldn’t run on the brand new Apple TV. And if that occurs, the Apple TV turns into a professional-level gaming console.
Turning the Apple TV right into a gaming console is smart for Apple’s ecosystem and the corporate’s backside line
When Apple introduced the upcoming Apple Video games app for all its units besides the Apple TV, it stood out as a obtrusive gap within the firm’s lineup, particularly since Apple Video games is a pure match for the Apple TV. However whenever you take within the odd omission, together with latest rumors that the subsequent Apple TV is about to get highly effective new CPU and wi-fi chipsets, and the flood of latest AAA titles hitting the Mac and iPhone this yr, issues begin to look loads clearer.
But one thing else leads me to imagine that Apple might be turning the Apple TV right into a gaming console this yr: the corporate’s historical past of being unwilling to let software program bulletins spoil new {hardware} options.
Prior to now, Apple has withheld software program bulletins at WWDC to keep away from revealing upcoming {hardware} enhancements to its units. The AAA titles out there on the Mac seem in Apple Video games on the macOS 26 beta. If Apple had previewed Apple Video games on the tvOS 26 beta, Mac video games that run on the brand new unreleased Apple TV, together with these AAA titles, may need additionally proven there. That will spoil a significant, as-yet-unannounced function for the as-yet-unannounced Apple TV.
In fact, all that is simply conjecture on my half. Nonetheless, all of the indicators appear to be pointing to Apple TV changing into a real gaming console. This could make a whole lot of enterprise sense for Apple. At value factors of $129 or $149, relying on whether or not you need extra storage and an ethernet connection, the present Apple TV 4K is far more costly than such rivals because the Roku Streaming Stick 4K ($49), the Roku Extremely ($99), and the Amazon Fireplace TV Stick 4K ($49).
Nevertheless, if Apple provides the brand new Apple TV gaming console capabilities, the present $129/$149 value abruptly appears to be like like a discount. A triple-A gaming expertise on the Apple TV can be a singular promoting level that Roku or Amazon couldn’t compete with.
It may additionally give Apple a significant new income stream within the type of 30% App Retailer commissions on AAA titles offered via the tvOS App Retailer. As of 2024, the worldwide AAA gaming market is valued at roughly $75 billion yearly, based on a July 2025 Enterprise Analysis Insights report. It’s anticipated to develop to almost $108 billion by 2033.
However most of all, a brand new Apple TV with console gaming capabilities would additional solidify the system because the digital coronary heart of the lounge and sensible residence, giving customers another excuse to remain inside Apple’s ecosystem, each inside and outdoors the home—an ancillary profit Apple probably finds invaluable.
