Yes, The Future of Mobile Gaming is Promising and Here’s Why

Mobile gaming is one of the central pillars of the gaming industry, which shows the evolution of the gaming market and developing technology over the years.

by Liz Rustia

Currently, there are more than 2.6 billion mobile gamers worldwide, and during the last year. It is estimated that these numbers will be larger this year with a massive 12% increase. Mobile gaming has become a multi-billion industry as it has generated a revenue of more than 180 billion US dollars. Most console and PC gamers do not consider mobile gaming as “real gaming” and call it less serious. They have their reasons to think so, as mobile gaming has some limitations like smaller screen, poor graphics and touch issues as compared to PC gaming.

But things are going to change. Now, the mobile gaming industry is progressing by leaps and bounds. According to many gaming industry experts, there are a lot of solid reasons to prove that mobile gaming is the future.

Let’s take a closer look at five reasons why mobile gaming has a surprisingly bright future.

1. There Are More Potential Mobile Gamers Than Console Gamers

Assuming that a mobile game becomes popular, it can turn out to be more profitable than an equivalent console game. Why? Because almost everyone in the world owns a smartphone but gaming consoles like PlayStation or Xbox have to be bought exclusively to enjoy the hobby and are thus more expensive from the get-go.

The greater the number of people playing your mobile game, the greater the revenue you can earn via player spending and running in-game ads. Although, this is a high-risk, high-return investment. For every mobile game that does succeed, there are hundreds that don’t.

Despite this risk, many popular console titles such as League of Legends, Diablo, Apex Legends, and Just Cause are coming to mobile soon to capitalize on the growing number of mobile gamers. To give you some perspective, let’s take a quick look at the 2021 worldwide revenue of some of the most well-known mobile games according to Sensor Tower: 

The apps above have anywhere from 50 million to one billion downloads on the Google Play Store. Although downloads are a big variable, revenue earned also depends on other factors such as player retention, time spent in the game, the level of gamification, etc.

2. Smartphones Are Getting More Powerful

As this progress continues, developers will be able to create games with better graphics and more fluid controls. And it only takes a couple of years before the power exclusive to flagship phones can be found in cheaper phones as well. This will allow for an increasingly wider user base which in turn leads to higher revenue.

3. Low Production Cost for Mobile Gaming

According to some trustful sources, the cost to develop an average console or PC game is around 1 million US dollars. 

One the other hand, a mobile game with similar visual effects and graphics can be created in less than $500k making it way cheaper than console games. 

The lower price of mobile gaming means that many independent mobile gaming developers can create mobile games on their own, without relying on big corporations. 

Additionally, the time taken to develop a mobile game is 3 hours as compared to 20 hours of console game. So, a developer can create more titles in less time, causing why mobile gaming is the future.

4. Advanced Monetization Method

As we know that the production cost of mobile gaming is very low as compared to PC gaming. Investors can make a great deal of money even if a slight number of mobile gamers buy things in-game.

Since freemium models of mobile games are in demand, we can hope to see enough free-to-play games in the future.

Mobile game developers have recently launched new monetization strategies to monetize their players better. And they were successful. The mobile gaming market’s worldwide revenue share has expanded due to the new monetization strategies, which have also assisted developers in making more money.

To increase the profit of mobile gaming developers and corporations, ad revenue is playing its part sufficiently. Then, there is also the subscription fee for premium products, whose popularity will surely be increased in the future. 

5. Integration of AR and VR in Mobile Games

Augmented reality allows players to do things differently. This means that, for any given set of choices, you can go for the strategies most likely to minimize the risks. It let us play in a multi-dimensional space. In the real world, as we all know, we can move back and forth and up and down and side to side, whereas we cannot usually do this in a game.

AR games can be social. You can share your gaming experience with your friends, for instance. And you can collaborate with them in some fashion. AR is mixing the real world with virtual things that you can interact with, which is especially exciting.

Mobile gaming in its current form is a work in progress. It’s better than what it used to be a couple of years ago, but we’re still nowhere near experiencing it in its full potential.

It will certainly take time for mobile games to look as good as console games. But given the trends, it’s clear that more developers are hopping on board and doing their part to push the boundaries.