The Best of 2020

In Vulture’s “The 10 Best Video Games of the Year,” Animal Crossing: New Horizons takes the cake. Available on Nintendo Switch, five million copies of the game were sold in the first month after its initial release in March, topping any other video game in history. Just one look into the Animal Crossing world is enough to understand the hype. Set in a deserted island, players build tools, trade objects, hunt animals, and collect fruits to transform their bare land into a thriving community. The variety of activities and adorable animal characters were enjoyed by endless players across the globe this year, bringing light fun when we needed it most.

After a year defined by people staying at home glued to their couches, Apple named Wakeout! its iPhone App of the Year 2020. Wakeout! is an app under the Health & Fitness category that offers over a thousand brief exercises and gives people no excuse for not getting a workout in. Users can select virtually any area they want to exercise in, ranging from the workplace to the kitchen to even an airplane. They can also customize their exercise mood and duration to fit a busy schedule. Unfortunately, after a 7-day free trial, the app costs $4.99 per month, but the cost isn’t stopping people from staying in shape!

Google's “Year in Search 2020” lists the top 10 trending television shows of 2020. The winner of the top spot? Netflix’s Tiger King, released in March. The show earned the title of most-watched on Netflix for the longest period of time, ranking at #1 in the platform’s Top 10 for a whopping 25 consecutive days. A true crime documentary, Tiger King follows zookeeper turned felon Joe Exotic and his enemy, animal rights activist Carole Baskin. When Baskin tries to prevent Exotic from breeding big cats, Exotic is sent to jail for attempted murder. While some attribute the show’s success to its release during the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, others say its investigative nature and wildly odd characters are worth the binge any day.

IndieWire’s annual Critics Poll gathered votes from over 230 critics worldwide to arrive at a decisive result: Nomadland directed by Chloe Zhao is the best movie of 2020. Nomadland takes place in the American West during the Great Recession. It tells the story of a woman named Fern who loses everything to the economic collapse, and, as the title suggests, becomes a nomad. Zhao cast real-life nomads to play Fern’s mentors, and even lived out of a van with crew members while filming. Winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, Nomadland is an honest, representative, and real film that gave viewers a story of hardship to help cope with their own.