There is a huge world of mobile game forms, from immersive AR & VR games to many more, in a vast number of game genres. So, for game enthusiasts, mobile gaming offers the right type of solution. Mobile games are increasingly gaining in popularity.
In fact, according to a Statista report, the mobile game market will reach US$222.70bn by 2027, with 6.42% annual growth from 2023 to 2027. This underlines the scope it provides for businesses and game developers to cash in on this trend.
What Has Led to the Growing Popularity of Mobile Games?
There are multitudes of reasons why gamers, across any age group, prefer mobile games:
- Easy Access & Playing Convenience
Almost everyone now owns smartphones. In fact, the ownership of mobile far outweighs desktops. This means easy access to mobile games for everyone. Unlike being confined to a particular place for playing a game on your desktop or laptop, mobile game development offers on-the-go engagement and entertainment.
- Play Choosing From a Wide Genre of Games
Gone are the days when there were limited types of games to play on your basic keypad-based phones. Today, mobile phones are in itself are powerful machines that power all game genres. Whether you are a fan of racing games, love to shoot, or want to engage in multi-player games, you have a variety of options at your disposal.
- Affordability in Mobile Games
Most of the mobile games are free, and you only need to download the app and start playing for free. However, the ones that come with a paid model also aren’t too expensive (in fact much more affordable as compared to the streaming services you avail for your monthly entertainment doze).
- Immersive Experience
With technologies like AR, VR, and Metaverse, mobile games have become highly immersive. You can escape the real world, indulging yourself in a new realistic world altogether for hours, completing tasks, moving up levels, or doing things that would bring a sense of excitement and joy to you.
- Multiplayer Modes Allow for Interaction
There’s a huge range of multiplayer games in mobile gaming. Not only do you get to compete with real players, but can also engage in communication with them, making it more of an immersive and realistic experience. You can also collaborate with your friends and family, like we have experienced in games like PUBG, for carrying out tasks.
- Earning Potential Makes These More Exciting
There are a whole lot of game genres like casino games, along with board games that offer a chance for gamers to earn handsomely. While this is something that should be treated with caution, such an option does make mobile games highly attractive to users.
What Features Make Mobile Games Standout Than Other Platform Games?
There are some distinguished features of mobile games that have catapulted this specific game segment to huge popularity:
- Mobile Games Have Simpler Game Mechanism
Simple games that don’t involve intellectual movement or have simple strategizing like the popular Candy Crush, and Temple Run, and as such, make for an engaging mobile gaming experience. Such games are created with a simple mechanism that allows for quick adaptation and smooth touch-based control. No doubt, such gameplay aspect has made even simple games so popular that players get engaged for hours.
- Simple Control is a Great Benefit for Mobile Games
Unlike PCs or laptops, where you have to keep track of multiple keys on the board, or gaming consoles where you need to know which function to press or push, mobile games have simple touch controls that allow users to maneuver the gameplay easily and efficiently. Even some games come with a motion control feature, wherein you only have to slide or tilt the phone.
- Mobile Games Don’t Compromise on Graphics
When smartphones started gaining adoption, there was a huge clamor that opined that mobiles wouldn’t have the graphical power to support games like desktops and gaming consoles. But, in 2023, this can only be termed a myth and nothing else. It is safe to say that game developers have resulted in creating 2D and 3D game designs with rich and impactful graphics that allow for smooth navigation, interactivity, and gameplay.
- Mobile Games Load Fast
Like any other mobile app, users expect a mobile game to load fast, as well as transition from one stage to another quickly and smoothly. This means that the game size is usually compact compared to other platform games. However, not all games can be too compact, as you can see with PUBG or Call of Duty. These are heavy-sized games, but gamers have incorporated amazing graphics as well as gameplay into those games while allowing for a seamless game load as possible as it can be.
- These Come with Amazing Sound effects and Tones
If you have played Candy Crush, you would have noticed the compliments the game gives you in the form of ‘tasty’, or ‘sweet’, or as such, when your complete candy matching tasks. It is so soothing and really gets the player to delve more into the game. The better the sound effects of a game are, even background music, the more engaging it is overall.
- Competitive Nature of the Game
No game can get you engaged for long if it doesn’t award you in return. This is what features like ‘Leaderboard’ have done for the mobile gaming community. Games across genres like shooting, racing, multi-player, and more introduce different types of leaderboards that make them all the more exciting and engaging.
- Real-Time Notifications Keeps You Updated with the Game Happenings
If you have played Pokemon GO, then you would know how a notification pops up on your phone informing you about a new egg hatch, so that you can get on the task (if you are free to play at that time). Similarly, there are several types of notifications mobile games send out, like a feature update, new task, and much more, that keep the game enthusiasts hooked and updated.
What Game Genres are in Trend When it Comes to Revenue Generation for Developers?
For game developers, user engagement is definitely a key aspect, but profitability remains as vital as anything else. There are several mobile game genres that are deemed highly profitable as of now and are in trend:
- F2P + IAP
We have mentioned this in brief earlier too. Free-to-play with in-app-purchase mobile game models is definitely a hit across all genres. The basic concept is to offer free games, add a large user audience, and then offer them in-app purchases, just like several other mobile app types. This is one of the most popular game revenue models, as frequent small purchases by players lead to significant earnings for the game companies or developers.
Within this concept falls ‘battle royal’ games, like PUBG, where players participate in buying battle passes, cosmetic items, and more, through an in-app purchase model.
- Multiplayer Online Role-Playing-Games
The MMORPG genre is also a hit for revenue generation. The virtual world introduces players to a whole set of quests, wherein they engage in in-game economy. Such games also come with subscription models, which can be time-specific, or as an upgrade.
- Sports Games
Several high-end sports games, like FIFA, and NBA have created a huge revenue generation model through in-game purchases, annual upgrade releases, team license options, and much more.
Real trade and virtual currency systems have created a huge economy out of mobile games that are sure to witness more innovations and trends in the coming time.
Also Read: Learn the Right Strategies to Promote Your Mobile Games in 2023
What is the Scope of Mobile Gaming in the Next 5 Years?
Mobile game development has undoubtedly become the most profitable in the gaming industry, owing to the earlier mentioned factors, and it isn’t showing any signs of slowing down in the next 5 years or even a decade, because:
- Today, mobile phone ownership is a ubiquitous fact. You will find every other person owning a smartphone or a tablet, meaning the consumer base is huge for game developers.
- Traditional game platforms like desktops used to require specialized software and hardware, but this has been done away with the introduction of mobile phones as preferred gaming devices, as these come with inbuilt features for game support.
- Mobile games have helped developers tap into a wider audience like children, teenagers, and the old generation as well, which wasn’t the fact with traditional gaming platforms. The diverse mobile game genre in mobile gaming has also made this easily possible.
- With traditional gaming devices or platforms, users had to buy games to start playing them. However, with mobile games, the free-to-play mode with just app download makes it much more preferable for users. And for developers, the in-app purchase feature enables them to tap into a revenue-generating model with mobile games.
- Mobile games with a social feature aspect, which means players can share and showcase their leaderboard tally, winnings as well and earnings with their connections on the social channels that foster a sense of community.
- There is a huge range of open-source technologies and a wide array of tools for mobile game development, which ensures the scope is wide in game development for mobile users. And it helps to churn out unique and amazing games that instantly attract users.
Bottom Line:
Excited about the scope and prospect of a mobile game as a business? Well, we at WebMobril can turn vision into a reality crafting games that captivate users, are well adapted to various operating systems, and provide seamless functionality, and tones of features that help you create a distinct identity in the world of mobile gaming.