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It’s always a little strange looking back at the year and realizing just how much happened. While it’s a fact that Dune: Part Two, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and the Apple Vision Pro all came out in 2024, it’s also hard to believe — they all feel like they happened forever ago.
As with past years, we’re using this as a chance to reminisce. That means stories from our reporters covering the most important or weird trends in tech and culture as well as roundups to help you navigate 2024’s many, many releases across game consoles and streaming services.
So, before we all head into 2025, take a moment to look back on the things you’ve forgotten about — or catch up on those that you missed altogether.
8 great Apple Arcade games for your iPhone or iPad
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
It was a bit of a weird year for Apple’s subscription gaming service. 2024 saw very few notable exclusives launch on Apple Arcade; instead, the service was fleshed out with a number of big games that you can already play on other platforms. It hasn’t been great for showcasing what makes Apple Arcade unique, but on the other hand, it’s hard to complain too much when it means your subscription now includes Balatro and Vampire Survivors. Here’s the best of what came out this year.
This poker game has been an unexpected hit ever since it launched on PC and consoles at the beginning of the year. It’s sort of like a solo version of poker, only with the gameplay loop of a roguelike, which means that you’ll be collecting rare joker cards to augment your hands as you create a deck capable of turning out absolutely absurd scores. It takes a moment for it to click, but Balatro is particularly well suited to mobile, where you can squeeze in a few quick rounds wherever you are… or accidentally let a few hours go by while you try to complete a run.
2024 in wearables: the year of the smart ring
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
When you say “wearables,” people generally think of smartwatches. But 2024 was a relatively quiet year for smartwatches, during which iterative updates reigned supreme. That happens in a maturing category. In exchange for polished products, you lose out on the weird frenetic energy — and sometimes ludicrously bad ideas — found when people are trying to figure out how to make a nascent gadget category work. Thankfully, it seems that energy is starting to bubble up with smart rings.
Smart rings are not new, but in 2024, there was a sort of renaissance for the category. I had an inkling that might be the case back in January, when several smart rings littered the CES show floor. And then Samsung kicked the door wide open in February by announcing the long-rumored Galaxy Ring. Samsung is a major player in the smartwatch space. For them to branch out into an entirely new wearable category? That’s big. It propels what’s thus far been a niche form factor into the mainstream.
8 great games for your Steam Deck
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
The Steam Deck gets better every year, and 2024 was no exception. It’s been my primary gaming device ever since I became a parent, and I love being able to access the humongous library of games available on Steam from wherever I want, whether it’s at home or while the baby is taking a nap at grandma’s house. Valve keeps adding great features via software updates, too, like game recording.
If you’re just setting up a Steam Deck for the first time — perhaps you’re lucky enough to get one of the limited-edition white models — or you’re dusting off your Deck after a little break, I’ve put together some recommendations of great games from this year, along with one update to a classic.
Social networks in 2024: bless this mess
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
If you had to pick a social network winner, it’s probably Threads. Two years ago, after Elon Musk acquired Twitter and announced his intention to ruin it forever, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw an opportunity to build a text-first social network. Now, barely 18 months after its launch, Threads has more than 300 million users and has been adding a million more every day.
But Threads isn’t Twitter, and it’s never going to be. Twitter was never the biggest or most successful social network — far from it — but Twitter was at the absolute epicenter of culture for years. It was where politicians went to talk to their constituents and emergency services went to tell people what was happening. It was where newsmakers dropped their scoops first. It was, by a mile, the place you were most likely to have your message actually read — or even replied to! — by an A-list celebrity or your favorite brand. It was a bad business and a frequently badly run company, but Twitter was the most right now place on the internet.
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