The Great macOS Wallpaper Bracket — Basic Apple Guy (2024)

Voting Schedule:

• June 28-July 5: Round I Cat Conference (CLOSED)

• July 6-12: Top 8 California Conference (CLOSED)

• July 13-19: Round II Cat Conference & Round I California Conference (CLOSED)

• July 20-26: Round II California Conference (CLOSED)

• July 27-August 2: Round III Conference Finals Cat & California Conference (CLOSED)

• August 3-August 9: Cat vs. California Finals (CLOSED)

The Great macOS Wallpaper Bracket pits all of Apple's default Mac OS X, OS X, & macOS wallpapers against each other in a battle of the ages.

Eighteen wallpapers are competing in this bracket. The first "Cat Conference" comprises Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah through OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Meanwhile, the "California Conference" includes OS X 10.9 Mavericks through macOS 13 Ventura. Voting is conducted through a Google Forms survey that runs from June 28 through August 09. Each week, the wallpapers that receive the most votes will advance in the standings, while all remaining wallpapers are eliminated. In the end, the playoff bracket will determine the best Mac wallpaper from the past two decades, as voted by you.

Week 01

June 28-July 5: Round I Cat Conference

1,405 people voted in the first round of The Great macOS Wallpaper Bracket to decide which of Apple's Big Cat wallpapers should move onto Round II. The four pairings were:

• Mac OS X 10.0/10.1 (Cheetah/Puma) competed against OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion)

• Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) competed against OS X 10.7 (Lion)

• Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) competed against Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

• Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) competed against Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

Week 01 Results

• Mac OS X 10.0/10.1 (23.4%) lost to OS X 10.8 (76.6%)

• Mac OS X 10.2 (24.2%) lost to OS X 10.7 (75.8%)

• Mac OS X 10.3 (23.9%) lost to Mac OS X 10.6 (76.1%)

• Mac OS X 10.4 (39.1%) lost to Mac OS X 10.5 (60.9%)

I wasn't too surprised by the results, save for one pairing. I figured the space/aurora wallpapers would thump the Mac OS X 10.0-10.3 wallpapers, but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that 10.5's aurora wallpaper would beat out Mac OS X 10.4's iconic aqua wallpaper. That wallpaper is the worst of the space-themed wallpapers, yet it still thrashed Tiger's wallpaper by a healthy 60/40 margin. Frankly, I almost considered cancelling the whole project right then, but that's not how democracies work, so I forged ahead.

The next round of polling asked which eight of the ten California wallpapers should compete in The Great macOS Wallpaper Bracket. I opted for a simple poll rather than doing any round-robin seeding. Based on the results, the top eight wallpapers would move on & square off in the bracket.

WEEK 02 RESULTS

Eight hundred eighteen respondents answered the survey. Here are the results of the polling, ranked from most to least popular:

• 1. macOS 10.14 (Mojave) received 721 votes (88.1%)

• 2. macOS 10.15 (Catalina) received 711 votes (86.9%)

• 3. OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) received 708 votes (86.6%)

• 4. OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) received 689 votes (84.2%)

• 5. macOS 11 (Big Sur) received 684 votes (83.6%)

• 6. macOS 10.12 Sierra received 664 votes (81.2%)

• 7. macOS 12 (Monterey) received 617 votes (75.4%)

• 8. OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) received 601 votes (73.5%)

• 9. macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) received 593 votes (72.5%)

• 10. macOS 13 (Ventura) received 556 votes (68%)

Again I was surprised to see so many people show their support for Apple's landscape wallpapers, with the notable exception of people throwing particular shade at High Sierra's wallpaper (9th place). I was also startled to see Apple's abstract wallpapers not only far from being the most popular but also that their popularity dropped with each successive iteration. Big Sur was the 5th most voted on wallpaper, but that quickly dropped to 7th for Monterey and 10th (least popular) for Ventura.

The next round of pollings pitted Apple's four space-themed wallpapers from the Cat Conference against each other to determine which two would move onto the Conference Finals while also having people vote on which four wallpapers from the California Conference would move onto round two. This is no longer for the faint of heart, as some difficult choices need to be made as to who stays and who goes as we determine the final six wallpapers that'll compete for the crown of Best Mac Wallpaper.

WEEK 03 RESULTS

• Monterey (56.7%; 788votes) beat Mavericks (43.3%; 602votes)

• Catalina (59.2%; 823votes) beat El Capitan (40.8%; 567 votes)

• Mojave (62.3%; 866votes) beat Sierra (37.7%; 524 votes)

• Yosemite (50.1%; 697votes) beat Big Sur (49.9%; 693 votes)

Voting in Round I was consistent with the order in which these wallpapers were picked during Week 02 when the top 8 California wallpapers were narrowed down: Mojave (1st) beat Sierra (6th), Catalina (2nd) beat El Capitan (4th), Yosemite (3rd) beat Big Sur (5th), and Monterey (7th) beat Mavericks (8th). But the margins of victory varied wildly. While Mojave handily beat Sierra by a 24.6-point margin, that narrowed to only 13.4-points in favour of Monterey and an impossibly thin 0.2-point margin (just four votes!) in favour of Yosemite over Big Sur! Those four votes were enough to send Yosemite and Monterey, Catalina, & Mojave into Round II. It's only going to get tougher from here!

Round II of the California Conference pitted some of the highest polling wallpapers head-to-head. In this round, macOS Monterey took on OS X Yosemite, while favourites macOS Catalina & Mojave squared off.

WEEK 04 RESULTS

• Monterey (50.2%; 788) beat Yosemite (49.8%; 774)

• Catalina (51.8%; 805) beat Mojave (48.2%; 750)

Round II saw Yosemite, a crowd favourite, pitted against the longtime underdog Monterey, while two of the strongest contenders, Mojave and Catalina, battled it out.

And after all 1,555 votes were counted, Monterey narrowly edged out Yosemite by just 14-votes! Yosemite, remember, was the third most popular wallpaper during voting in week 02, so to see it beaten by the 7th seed Monterey was quite an upset. Meanwhile, two of the most popular wallpapers, Mojave and Catalina, squared off, with Catalina taking 51.8% of the votes (805 vs. 755) and moving onto Round III.

The Conference Finals pits the Lions against each other in the Cat Conference. At the same time, 7th seed Monterey faces off against longtime crowd favourite Catalina in the California Conference, which has just come off a narrow win against Mojave.

WEEK 05 RESULTS

• Lion (53.5%; 533) beat Mountain Lion (46.5%; 463)

• Catalina (54.8%; 546) beat Monterey (45.2%; 450)

Nearly 1,000 (996) people cast their votes to decide which of these top four wallpapers will move on to the finals.

In the end, OS X Lion defeated OS X Mountain Lion, becoming the champion of the Cat Conference. And in the California Conference, Catalina took nearly 55% of the votes, beating Monterey and moving on to face OS X Lion in the Finals.

After 37 days, it all comes down to two. Which wallpaper, OS X Lion or macOS Catalina, would garner the most votes and earn the title of the Greatest macOS Wallpaper of all time?

WEEK 06 RESULTS

And there you have it; after 44 days of competition, 1,230 votes were cast in the final round of The Great macOS Wallpaper Bracket to determine which wallpaper, Lion or Catalina, would take the top prize as the greatest macOS wallpaper of all time.

And the winner, with a 51.5% share of the votes (633), is macOS Catalina! OS X 10.7 Lion was defeated in a narrow margin, earning 597 votes, or just 36 votes fewer than Catalina.

Catalina's Path to Victory began by receiving 86.9% favorability amongst voters as one of the top eight California wallpapers. In the first round, it handily beat OS X El Capitan by a nearly 20-point margin (59.2% to 40.8%). In Round II, Catalina faced another crowd favourite, Mojave, and squeaked out a narrow victory with 51.8% of the votes. Then in the Conference Finals, Catalina faced an unlikely contender, macOS Monterey, which started the competition as the 7th seed but had risen through the ranks as the true underdog of the bracket. Monterey proved no match for Catalina, who won 54.8% of the votes. That gave Catalina a berth to the Final Round and on to face OS X 10.7 Lion.

Lion's path to victory first began by crushing Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar with nearly 76% of the popular vote and then defeating Snow Leopard by a 54-to-46 spread. Finally, in a battle of the two Lions, OS X 10.7 beat out Mountain Lion with 53.5% of the votes.

In Sum

I had no idea how this bracket would have panned out, but it turned out nothing as I had expected. I was sure the old guard of Mac OS X users would vote heavily in favour of the nostalgic Aqua wallpapers. Yet, after all four were soundly wiped out in the first round, I quickly dropped the belief I had any ability to predict this bracket. I was disappointed that El Capitan, Big Sur, and Mountain Lion didn't win, as those three were my favourites, but I'm not disappointed by Catalina's victory. Despite being one of the buggiest OS releases for me, Catalina has a beautiful wallpaper. I can understand and appreciate how it held its own against the tough competition it faced.

Seven thousand three hundred ninety-five (7,395) votes were cast throughout this competition; my thanks to everyone who participated in the bracket.