Google honored 10 apps and games for their outstanding achievements as part of the inaugural Google Play Awards. But this article isn’t about the winners, this article is about the losers. No, not losers! These apps were good enough to get nominated, so they’re definitely not losers.

But let’s not get caught up in semantics. A total of 50 apps across 10 award categories were nominated for the first-ever Google Play Awards. The 10 winning apps are listed here. The remaining 40, which were nominated but did not score a win, are listed below.

2016 Google Play Awards – Best App nominations

To get nominated in this category means to have it all: a beautiful design, an intuitive UX, and high user appeal, quality and rating.

• BuzzFeed News – the most important and most interesting stories from around the world, hand-picked by BuzzFeed editors.
• Colorfy – the best app for coloring book therapy. Color beautiful florals, animals, patterns, mandalas, cats, gardens, famous paintings, and more.
• TuneIn Radio – easy and free access to tons on radio stations.
• Yummly – recipes from thousands of the world’s top recipe sites and blogs.

2016 Google Play Awards – Best Families nominations

Apps and games with a family friendly design that encourages creativity and innovation were nominated in this category.

• Card Wars – Adventure Time – a card game inspired by Adventure Time.
• LEGO Jurassic World – relive and experience all four Jurassic Park films, in LEGO format of course.
• My Very Hungry Caterpillar – a 3D interactive app inspired by Eric Carle’s much-loved character, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
• Toca Nature – shape nature and watch it develop.

2016 Google Play Awards – Best Game nominations

To make it into this category, a game has to have strong mechanics, an informative tutorial, broad appeal and tasteful design.

• Alphabear – spell words by selecting letters on a grid.
• Clash of Kings – real-time strategy game where you battle to build an empire and control 7 fantasy kingdoms!
• MARVEL Future Fight – gather the mightiest super heroes and super villains in the Marvel universe, join an epic fight and ensure humanity survives.
• Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes – collect iconic characters from the Star Wars universe, build a powerful team, and then use said team to defeat your enemies.

2016 Google Play Awards – Best Use of Material Design nominations

Nominations for this category are all about first-class implementation of material design concepts that deliver an immersive and innovative user experience.

• Bring – create, manage and share shopping lists.
• The Fabulous – the motivation you need to reach your goals.
• Todoist – a to-do app used by millions of people around the world.
• Vevo – an extensive library of official music videos from today’s hottest artists.

2016 Google Play Awards – Best Use of Google Play Game Services nominations

The apps that were nominated in this category are high quality games with several strong GPGS feature implementations.

• Sea Battle 2 – the game everyone knows from their childhood. Place your ships on the board, attack the opponent’s positions, and use your vast arsenal to sink the opponent’s ships.
• Tapventures – explore an ever growing universe of creatures, fight enemies, summon heroes and slay the gods.
• TowerMadness 2 – the sequel to TowerMadness, the hit tower defense strategy adventure game.
• Zombie Highway 2 – a game about cars, guns, and zombies.

2016 Google Play Awards – Early Adopter nominations

The most outstanding apps to adopt a nascent technology or platform and thus offer a delightful user experience.

• Glide – the fastest live video messenger app on the planet.
• Mechanic Escape – a platform game full of infernal chases, a game that aims to defy your reflexes.
• Minecraft: Story Mode – an episodic point-and-click graphic adventure video game based on Minecraft.
• Zumper – easily find an apartment or house to rent.

2016 Google Play Awards – Go Global nominations

For this category, the Google Play experts selected apps with great localization and culturalization, or subject matter appeal, across multiple regions.

• Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle – face off against formidable adversaries from the Dragon Ball Z anime series.
• Freeletics Bodyweight – the most effective fitness training program, adapted to your schedule, your fitness level and your goals.
• Memrise – learn a new language with the most effective language learning application.
• Musixmatch – the world’s largest catalog of lyrics.

2016 Google Play Awards – Most Innovative nominations

This category features apps that offer a highly engaging novelty experience or a unique benefit to the user.

• Fast like a Fox – tap on the back of your device to get the Fox to run through exciting and challenging worlds.
• SmartNews – delivers the top trending stories from around the world.
• The Fabulous – the motivation you need to reach your goals.
• This War of Mine – experience war from a new angle; play as a group of civilians trying to survive in a besieged city.

2016 Google Play Awards – Standout Indie nominations

These are some of the best indie games out there. What makes them stand out is their focus on artistic design as well as high quality and innovative gameplay.

• Alto’s Adventure – join Alto and his friends as they embark on an endless snowboarding odyssey.
• Fast like a Fox – tap on the back of your device to get the Fox to run through exciting and challenging worlds.
• Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector – attract cats with food and then watch them romp with your toys.
• Prune – grow and shape your tree into the sunlight while avoiding the dangers of a hostile world.

2016 Google Play Awards – Standout Startup nominations

For an app to be nominated in the Standout Startup category, it has to offer a unique experience while achieving strong install growth.

• Dubsmash – choose a sound, record yourself with the sound, share the recorded Dub with others.
• Muscal.ly – create, share, and discover short videos.
• Robinhood – a free stock trading app you can use to buy and sell stocks.
• Vrse – a curated collection of the best cinematic virtual reality content.

Google Play Awards 2016 – All the Nominated Apps

Google set up a special section on Google Play for the apps and games that were nominated for the first-ever Google Play Awards. You can check it out by clicking this link. If one of the nominated apps is missing, it means it is not available in your region. Sorry.

Alternatively, you can see a list of nominations on the official Android Developers Blog here.