What Led to the Explosion for Mobile Games?

The successes of mobile games as a whole aren’t entirely new, as in a more general sense they have filled the role that many handheld games had filled from a time before modern mobile devices with the likes of the GameBoy and other similar devices – but in many instances as mobiles continue to develop the game availability is still not as robust as many would hope. Despite that, there has been a huge wave of popularity growing across all of the biggest mobile gaming gernes, but what has led to this enormous growth?

A changing audience has been impactful - Where gaming may have been targeted to younger teen males at one point in time, the successes of mobile has certainly changed that as the primary consumers of these games are now targeted towards a slightly older audience, and particularly of the other gender too as women have been found to be the primary consumers for longer periods of time too. This has led to the desire for a different type of gaming option, and mobile has certainly helped fill that gap with how quick a turnaround many games can have, and how accessible they have become.

Wider genre availability too - Whilst the audience does impact the changing genres available, but many options aren’t only limited to the typical genres either. There has been a lot of success found in growing markets like betting and casino options for gaming too, many services like these which may have been typically limited to desktop sites are now much more readily available on mobile and continue to be amongst the most popular gaming services available.

An adjustment in pricing models too - Particularly with smaller titles, associating any cost is never easy, and that is certainly something that has played into the hand of mobile gaming. With the majority of games being offered for free, it allows players an opportunity to try the games out without being concerned about buying the game. Whilst this has led to the prominence of microtransactions and paying to remove the likes of ads which has become an issue for many, it has allowed much easier access to gaming than before and has helped the platform grow.

Many consider mobile gaming to be the future of gaming as a whole as the market continues to quickly outpace other options, but as changes continue to come through and device hardware continues to improve too, it may not be long until there are more complex and more full options on offer, particularly as different options in things like emulation are possible bringing classic and more nostalgic games to mobile too.