While other games come and go, it’s clear that bingo is here to stay. Specifically, online and mobile bingo is here to stay, with the latter gaining more popularity than ever throughout 2018. Here we’ll be looking at why mobile bingo has become popular, what sorts of games are available on mobile and what the future may hold for mobile bingo.
The Rise Of Mobile Bingo
All around the world, bingo has been enjoying an unprecedented renaissance over the last decade. In the 1940s, before the internet became a household amenity, bingo attracted thousands of players to halls but, by the 1980s, most of these clubs had been transformed into cinemas or nightclubs.
It wasn’t until the late 1990s that bingo began to attract huge crowds once more. Instead of heading out to the bingo halls though, people were logging into bingo websites where they could find a few different types of games, play live games and win big jackpots all from the comfort of their own home. For a long time, online bingo has remained the most popular form of bingo in the world, having saved the game from the annals of history. Online bingo has even played a huge role in bringing bingo back to the clubs, with student events and companies like Bongo’s Bingo achieving huge success over recent years. In the UK alone, it’s thought that approximately 1.35 million people play bingo either online or at a traditional brick-and-mortar venue regularly.
However, now there’s a new, fresh version of bingo that may even be able to give online platforms a run for their jackpot money. The revival of bingo that started with online platforms has now been adopted and pushed even further by the introduction of mobile bingo. These games exist in the form of websites compatible with mobile web browsers or as apps, and they are attracting even more players from different demographics than ever before. While there’s no denying the success of online bingo sites that have set up shop on PCs and laptops, sites that have made the leap towards mobile platforms are bound to carry bingo’s success forward.
Arguably the biggest and most obvious reason for this is the fact players can take their mobiles with them wherever they go. Whether they’re on a break at work, commuting or on holiday, bingo fanatics can simply log in on their mobiles and play for as long as they like. Plus, considering it’s thought that around 4.68 billion people on Earth will own mobile phones by the end of 2019, that’s a lot of players the mobile bingo industry can reach.
In addition to accessibility, mobile bingo also possesses most of the elements that made online bingo so popular in the first place. In fact, we’d argue that mobile bingo platforms improve on these foundations. For instance, players are able to socialize with each other using chat boxes or text and, when players aren’t chatting, the games are even more immersive due to touchscreen tech.
Mobile Bingo: A World Of Variety
So, it’s clear that mobile bingo has managed to reach brand new heights of popularity throughout 2018, but what games are actually available? What types of bingo do most mobile players actually gravitate towards right now?
Like online bingo, mobile bingo has plenty of variety. Gone are the days of playing classic 90-ball bingo over and over again because there’s nothing else to try, now there are more game varieties than you can shake a dabber at. 75-ball, 80-ball, and 30-ball now usually appear as standard, while Slingo, Deal or No Deal and other innovative new versions of the game are all gaining popularity as well.
As if that wasn’t enough to sate your gaming needs, most mobile-friendly bingo websites and apps also come with an entire iGaming roster as well. Wink Bingo’s mobile bingo app, for example, has all the brand’s biggest bingo favorites including 75-ball and 5-line bingo, as well as dozens of some of the world’s top slots. So, if you were ever to get tired of playing bingo you can branch out to have a go on Fluffy Favourites, Jack & the Beanstalk or one of the many other available games. That’s all in just one app, so it’s easy to see why mobile bingo is gaining so much popularity.
All that said, there is still plenty of room left for new brands, companies, and developers to enter the world of mobile bingo. That means that we’re sure to see far more developments in the near future.
The Future of Mobile Bingo
With so much promise for the future, we’ve no doubt that mobile bingo will continue to evolve throughout 2019 and beyond. In fact, an entirely new era of mobile bingo may already be upon us, due to the immense technological advancements we’ve made over the last few years.
Already we have the ability to host live games for thousands of players around the world. Live streaming bingo games are growing in popularity with every passing day, as players live to experience a real-world face-to-face game without actually having to congregate in one place. As more people choose live streaming, we’re sure it’ll encourage operators to bring in even more technology.
It might not be long before augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) become just as popular in the bingo world as they are in other gaming sectors. Using AR, mobile bingo sites will be able to digitally present elements of bingo games into the real world. So for example, we may soon be placing our smartphones into AR headsets and seeing digital bingo cards, balls and all the other bingo elements presented to us as though they are right in our living rooms. In time, mobile bingo operators may even be able to display holograms for us, though chances are that technology won’t be available to us for a long while yet. Using VR will probably become a reality far sooner, placing bingo players into virtual worlds where we can play and chat in an entirely new way.
As for when this technology appears, we’ll just have to wait and see. For now, we can celebrate in the success of mobile bingo, something that is sure to continue for years to come.
