Over the last decade, mobile gaming has rapidly risen to become the most popular form of video gaming in the world. Its accessibility through must-have devices and the freemium model has made the segment absurdly popular, now making up a 52 per cent share of the global games market, per NewZoo research, which equated to $93.2 billion in 2021. It’s colossal. Disposable free-to-play titles offer a lot to this sum. Developers are now making the platform a key battleground of quality products. True even if traditional video gamers dislike the gameplay loops of most of these games.
It’s not just in mobile gaming that smartphones are showcasing their power. With the mobile entertainment industry rising rapidly through superior products and tremendous demand. GlobeNewswire reports that the global mobile entertainment market is to continue at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 16 per cent to hit $257.1 billion by 2027 – which includes mobile gaming. So, what creations are powering the mobile entertainment movement?
Mobile gaming is still the number one form of entertainment on the go
Timewall simulations, multiplayer base builders, and puzzlers remain the big-hitting genres in mobile gaming. But much of this started with the inherent lack of power of smartphones and touch-screen controls. Still, over the years, more complex video games have arrived, including those on the HardcoreDroid list of the best Android games of all time, such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The vast open-world game launched on the PS2 in 2004 but has found a second wind on Android. Funnily enough, the mobile version works far better than the so-called GTA Definitive Edition version, with TechRadar saying that it’s still riddled with errors and bugs.
Perhaps the greatest feat of console-to-mobile is that of ARK: Survival Evolved. ARK’s prehistoric open-world launched in the Preview Program on the Xbox in late 2015, going on to become a colossal gaming world with single-player and massive multiplayer modes. Even though the FPS cap is 30, mobile ARK is still as thrilling as console and PC versions.
What helps to power these ports is the adoption of the touch-screen controls as well as smartphone gaming adaptors. As it stands, the Razer controllers are top of the class for making mobile gaming more comfortable. Still, there are plenty of innovative developers who continue to pump exciting mobile-first games into the Play Store.
A Winning Strategy
The strategy has long been a strong genre for mobile play due to its inherent lack of quick action controls. Now, there are many hardcore Android strategy games, with the ugly-but-complex Spaceward Ho! being a solid pick for sci-fi fans out there.
Major entertainment properties continue to create new mobile games, but now, it seems as though the cash grab approach has given way to aiming to create an endearing, enjoyable mobile gaming experience, rather than the slew of timewall simulations, like EA’s game The Simpsons: Tapped Out, that every name under the sun jumped on in the early 2010s.
Magic Awakened might just be proof of this. The last few mobile Harry Potter games followed the old formula of essentially being cash-grabs, but HP: MA looks to have a lot of playability, single-player options, and a competitive card gaming system.
The wider entertainment space is innovating to catch up with mobile gaming
Mobile gaming is the ultimate sector in mobile entertainment. Mobile showcases to the rest of the entertainment industry that convenience makes up for screen size and UI options. This is becoming more and more apparent in sports. According to Adjust data, sports apps boomed in June 2021, showing a 29 per cent increase for the start of the Olympics.
Interestingly, it’s not just the major TV companies offering an on-the-go part to their subscriptions. With the demand being high enough for even the slightly more niche sports to get dedicated streaming platforms. DAZN boxing, for example, streams live fights and gets to draw from Matchroom’s almighty stable of talent. Their success is even allowing them to branch into other sports like MMA, football, and indoor football.
Mobile-first Approach
In more traditionally-associated lines of entertainment, the jump to mobile has now been realigned to a mobile-first approach, even with the more technologically demanding products. There have been plenty of free and real-money apps that let you play classic casino card games, but few would have expected the live casino games of Betway blackjack to be available on smartphones. This is very much the case, though. With players being able to live stream to a real casino table elsewhere in the world, play hands of blackjack in real-time, and experience it with others.
Of course, it’s not just the more high-tech products that make mobile so perfect for quick doses of entertainment. There are so many absurdly niche entertainment apps out there, with the prime example in ET’s rankings being the Demotivational Pics app. It simply has over 40,000 of these classic internet memes to scroll through for a laugh.
Equally, and as validated in a Vox interview, you can even get apps to explore paranormal activities and hunt down ghosts. The Ultimate Ghost Detector app claims to offer real EMF and an EVP recorder, so you’re bound to bust that pesky ghost now.
Few would dispute mobile gaming as being the leading example of what entertainment can achieve on portable devices. Still, sectors like sport and casino entertainment are leveraging key technologies to enhance the overall mobile entertainment scene further.
