The mobile games industry is already massive, worth around $100 billion a year. It is generally seen as attracting a more casual crowd of gamers rather than the hardcore gamers on PCs and consoles. Mobiles are indeed convenient and portable. They can be carried anywhere with us, and thanks to the advent and improvement of 5G connectivity, mobile games on smartphones can be enjoyed from home, work, the bus, or anywhere else. Their accessibility and availability are the main reasons they have proven so popular.
Mobile Games
One of the reasons for mobile gaming popularity is the rich variety of games that have been made available. From mobile versions of AAA titles like PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds to casino platforms like Lucky Block, there is something for everybody. Online casinos are a good example of how games have moved from traditional desktop platforms to mobile. They continue their evolution thanks to the introduction of social apps like Telegram and Discord. While these apps are unlikely to see any direct ports of AAA titles, there’s no reason to believe we won’t see variants coming across.
Social Media Integration
This isn’t the only way social media has helped propel mobile gaming forward, either. Social media elements can be found in a lot of games. This can include leaderboards of your friends’ scores and challenges set by friends for their contacts to try and beat. Players can also share their achievements with friends on social media or directly through the game’s interface. From the game makers’ perspective, it encourages players to revisit the game and have another go. It encourages more game time, and it can drive new players to games. From the players’ perspective, it gives them the incentive to play more.
The Rise Of Streamers
The impact of content creators and streamers cannot be overlooked. Whether you play Roblox, are a master in Warzone’s Gulag, or enjoy a casual but stressful session on Overcooked, you will find streamers who regularly enjoy a game and share their updates with followers. These same creators also curate lists and create guides, which draw players to new games. And, of course, with the rise of streamers has come a rise in advertising on streamer channels. Some streamer channels attract tens of millions of subscribers, and while most play PC games, they also intersperse this with mobile games.
Accessibility
The greatest benefit of smartphones is accessibility. Gaming PCs can be very expensive, even for a fairly modestly priced rig. Consoles take up valuable space by the living room TV. In contrast, virtually all of us already carry mobile phones, which means we all have access to a gaming device already. What’s more, many of the games on these devices are free-to-play which means you don’t have to pay a cent to install or run them. Instead, they use in-app purchases and microtransactions to make money for the game makers. For premium games, the price is a fraction of what you would pay on PC and console, making mobile gaming highly accessible.
Improved Technology
Mobile phones have advanced considerably. Processors tend to be more powerful than 2Ghz and with multiple cores. Some of Samsung’s most recent devices have 3Ghz Deca-core processors. It also has an AMD RDNA3 GPU, and all of this adds up to surprisingly punchy gaming for a small handheld gaming device. For those who do want more, there are dedicated mobile gaming devices like the Nintendo Switch. There have also been reports that Sony is planning to re-enter the handheld console market with a device that will play PS5 games on the go.
Hyper Casual Gaming
Smartphones do lend themselves to casual gaming more than serious hardcore gaming. The phone is easy to pick up and it can be used to play games while watching TV or on the commute to work. As such, games that can be played for five to ten minutes are especially ideal for the platform. Hypercasual games also work well for the payment systems used in mobile gaming. The games themselves only cost a few dollars at most, with a lot of them available as part of subscription packages or other deals. Because most people have phones anyway, it has proven very effective to market hyper-casual games to these prospective players.
Competitive Gaming
In recent years, eSports has become a significant part of the gaming market. This competitive side of the gaming industry sees some of the best players in the world compete against one another in tournaments and ranked competitions. And if you’re a regular watcher of eSports, you will notice that it isn’t just PC and console gamers who get their chance to compete and shine. Mobile games are becoming increasingly prominent. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and PUBG Mobile are regularly featured on eSports tournament rosters.
Cross-Platform Play
Cross-platform play means players on smartphones, consoles, and PCs can compete against one another. Generally, at least in most game types, there are benefits to playing on bigger devices, however, which means it is rare for games to offer cross-play compatibility between devices. But, some games, like Minecraft, can be played on different devices using the same account. This means progress made on mobile can be saved and then used on the PC or Xbox at a later date. Mobile gaming may encourage portable players to pick up other devices. It may also encourage players from other platforms to pick up and play on their pocket devices.
Conclusion
Mobile gaming on smartphones is a massive industry. It tends to be focused on hyper-casual games with massive titles like Candy Crush, offering short 5-to-10-minute play sessions. Improved smartphone technology and enhanced 5G connectivity mean mobile games are more readily available and can offer more to players than ever before. Mobile games are commonplace in professional tournaments and competitions and regularly feature in streamer content, which has helped expand their popularity even further.
