'Frozen' and 'Serial' top Apple best-of-2014 lists

Weary parents, doomed to hear "Let it Go" on a loop until the end of time, made the "Frozen" soundtrack the most downloaded album of the year on iTunes.

Every year, Apple releases its lists of the top downloads, along with a selection of "best of" content on iTunes, chosen by Apple staff.

This year, Elsa and friends were all over Apple's most-purchased charts. "Frozen" was the most downloaded movie of the year, and the single "Let it Go" was the eighth most-popular song.

Kids (and kids at heart) were a driving force behind many of the top iTunes purchases this year. "Minecraft" was the most popular paid iPad app and second most-purchased iPhone app. "The Lego Movie" was the second most-downloaded movie and was Apple's pick for best family movie. Young adult book "The Fault in Our Stars" was the most popular fiction title, and YA hit "Divergent" was the top-selling audio book.

We hope the children weren't watching the most-downloaded TV shows. "Game of Thrones" topped the list, followed by "The Walking Dead," "Downton Abbey," "Breaking Bad" and "Scandal."

Facebook's plan to force its users to download the stand-alone Facebook Messenger app seems to have worked -- it was the year's most popular free iPhone app. Microsoft Word was only the fifth most-popular free iPad app, coming in behind YouTube, Netflix, Skype and a weather app.

In addition to naming its biggest moneymakers, Apple highlights what it thinks are the best movies, performances and apps of the year. The company safely dodged any controversy by naming Beyonce best artist and Taylor Swift's "1989" as best album of the year.

Other picks were "Fargo" the year's best TV show, Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson for best TV performances, and "Key & Peele" for best breakthrough TV show. Comedian Jenny Slate's movie "Obvious Child" was the best discovery and "Guardians of the Galaxy" best blockbuster. Brain training app Elevate is the company's pick for best app of the year and "Threes!" is the best game of the year.

Runaway true-crime hit "Serial" was anointed the best new podcast of the year. "Serial" is still iTunes' most downloaded podcast around the world right now, having been downloaded 5 million times.