Given the variety of devices available to play games on, it is clear that the gaming market is booming these days, especially when it comes to mobile gaming. The latter industry shows outstanding progress, mushrooming games that bring billions of dollars in revenue. For that reason, the mobile gaming industry has been in the spotlight, and it will definitely remain in it for quite a long time. Whether you are a game developer, a vigorous player, or just a passer-by, you’ll find this article valuable and insightful. It sheds light on, as pormised, the most notable mobile gaming trends for 2022.
Mobile gaming: Why pay attention to it?
Mobile gaming is the area to dive into if you’d like to double the audience and diversify your content. Just don’t forget to separate your streams and let people know in advance what’s on your gaming agenda. For instance, a twitch offline banner is a spectacular visual to inform your followers about the incoming stream.
But before delving into trends, let’s clarify why the mobile gaming venue is optimistic and ambitious. Foremost is that around 2 billion people have played games on their mobile devices, and that number shows annual growth. Not only that, the field already generates over $80 billion in revenue, and it will take only one year for the market to increase the revenue by around 25%, thus totaling over $100 billion.
Apart from the financial aspect, the mobile gaming industry has started engaging considerably more people worldwide. Nowadays, Asia and the Pacific have the highest concentration of mobile game players. But the tendency proves that Europe and the Americas aren’t too far away. And although the competition is tight, mobile game developers have an excellent opportunity to enter the field, contribute to it, and get substantial revenues.
With that in mind, let’s now review the most encouraging trends that will change the mobile gaming sector in 2022.
Better mobile gaming experience
Mobile phones show tremendous advancement year by year. New and efficient chipsets allow manufacturers to create lightweight, thin, and durable devices. And obviously, it all affects the gaming area.
Games that were popular and revolutionary in various terms–graphics, gameplay, mechanics–even several years ago are no longer striking and unique now. People want to make use of their mobile gadgets’ performance, so they long for graphic-laden, engaging games.
Besides, people expect to see the gap between mobile and PC/console gaming shrink. It makes game developers work twice as harder as those from the computer gaming market.
Closer attention to the social factor
Indubitably, tuning in Discord and running a game as a team is an excellent idea. But sometimes, exchanging words in a chat is enough to maintain communication and feel less solitary when playing mobile games.
Insufficient socialization within the mobile gaming area is apparent, and for many devs, it is a primary concern. Other than implementing the chat option, developers also think of ways to improve the matchmaking algorithms, pairing players of similar abilities.
Stronger emphasis on cross-platform games
The notion of cross-platform games is very new, and it gets explored along with technological advancement. Yet, the outcomes of these games have already demonstrated that they are playable, gripping, and popular.
In a nutshell, cross-platform games are games people can play on various devices, including mobile phones. Indeed, mobile gadgets have significantly weaker hardware than PCs, so it’s often impossible to create a full-fledged cross-platform game.
However, devs have come up with an effective solution. By rolling out spin-offs, the same game but with variations, mobile games provide a unique experience and serve as excellent promotions, motivating players to try PC/console versions of the game, or vice versa.
More diverse economics and improved monetization
Economics is another trend mobile game developers will strive to enhance in the following year. It plays a pivotal role in customer retention rate and engagement level. And to keep them high, we are likely to observe changes in things like in-app purchases, trading systems, donations, and more.
Also, the entire concept of monetization will alter soon. In light of incoming changes in monetization and privacy, devs will have to build new monetization strategies that abide by the new rules. What exactly will ads look like? We shall see because companies now review and modify their marketing plans to tailor them to the regulations. Notwithstanding, we can expect new approaches and exciting content in ads.
Final thoughts on what to anticipate in the upcoming year
With a diverse and burgeoning field like mobile gaming, it’s hard to forecast how it can change and what to await. What we can say for sure is that the market won’t stagnate; we will observe plenty of striking changes. Above are apparent aspects game developers will focus on. So whether or not you plan to enter the field, provided trends unfold what to anticipate in the industry in 2022.