What’s new in Game Center in WWDC 2025?

At WWDC 2025, several new features and improvements were introduced for Game Center:

New Apple Games App: Game Center is integrated into the new Apple Games app, which is pre-installed on macOS, iPadOS, and iOS. This app boosts game discoverability and engagement by showcasing games, leaderboards, and achievements. It also allows players to see what their friends are playing and to invite them to play together.
Challenges and Activities: Game Center now includes new challenges and activities that turn single-player games into social experiences. These features allow players to invite friends to compete for high scores, see scores in real-time, and start rematches. Challenges are built on top of existing leaderboards, requiring no additional code.
Integration with Xcode: Game Center configuration is now fully integrated with Xcode 26, allowing developers to configure achievements, leaderboards, and challenges directly within Xcode. This integration supports synchronization with App Store Connect and offers new testing capabilities through the Game Progress Manager.
Game Center Challenges API: A new API allows developers to create social experiences by turning single-player game activities into challenges with friends. These challenges appear in the new games app and can be accessed in the game overlay.
Improved Game Center Features: The core features of Game Center, such as achievements, leaderboards, challenges, and activities, continue to enhance player engagement by providing goals and opportunities for social connections.

For more detailed information, you can check out the session Get started with Game Center (10:00) which covers challenges and activities, or Engage players with the Apple Games app (05:53) to learn about leveraging Game Center features.