Mobile Gaming Industry Trends & Growth Prospects

Mobile phones might once have been seen solely as a means of on-the-go communication and a way to stay connected with other people 24 hours a day. However, in time, they have not just evolved to be more compact, powerful, and visually appealing but also to offer users a much broader set of features that extends way beyond making phone calls and texting. Today, smartphones are our tools for doing business, learning, socializing, and simply staying entertained.

We surely spend a lot of time on our phones playing games. According to the latest mobile gaming industry trends reviews, an average user spends around 43% of their daily smartphone time doing exactly that, and over 90% of gamers are mobile gamers. While these figures already seem impressive, there is a clear tendency for them to only get bigger over the next few years.

If mobile gaming is not just an empty term for you but also a source of income for your business, you should try to understand how this sector works and what exciting market trends in the games industry prevail. Asolytics team has prepared a detailed mobile gaming industry overview to show you how things are in 2022 and what they are likely to be in the nearest future.

With around 2.2 billion active mobile users currently worldwide and another 0.87 billion expected to join their ranks in the next two years, mobile gaming is definitely a thing worth talking about. Mobile gaming is a predominant form of digital gaming enabled by mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets and characterized by enhanced portability, accessibility, and convenience.

The contents and practices of digital gaming that were once exclusively defined by PC and console experiences are now centered around mobile play. Mobile games are no longer a way to kill time until you can get home to your stationary device and start ‘playing for real’ – it is a self-standing worldwide phenomenon that has gone mainstream and transformed our everyday lives in a way we have never seen coming.

There is an ever-growing concern that mobile games and any video games, in general, are not a healthy pastime, specifically if they target kids. However, numerous studies have proven that – with proper parental involvement and support – mobile games can help children derive many health and developmental benefits from the experience. Adults can get quite a few perks out of it, too, it seems:

• Improvement of memory, spatial awareness, imagination, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Physical exercise promotion via a wide range of active gaming apps: the AR element in such games encourages children to go outside and do something physical to enhance gameplay.
• Morale and team-building potential: encouraging occasional breaks throughout the workday spent playing fun, reasonably competitive games can boost the team morale, relieve stress, and improve the ability to collaborate on crucial tasks.
• Educational advantages: certain mobile games can facilitate the user’s learning potential and teach them valuable skills and useful facts in an interactive and unobtrusive manner.

The market for mobile games is rapidly evolving, meaning you need to be always on top of what is happening here and know the workings of this industry inside out if you are a mobile game developer or an advertiser. That, in part, includes closely following the latest trends that define our mobile gaming experiences and influence the industry in general. Equipped with such information, you can make well-informed decisions on the go and leverage every opportunity that comes your way.

Long story short, here is a list of the top 3 most thrilling and meaningful trends to watch in 2022/23:

Enabled by blockchain technology, the play-to-earn (P2E) business model is turning out to be a tremendous success since it allows mobile users to earn money as they play their favorite games. Unlike P2P and F2P models, P2E enables players to collect assets that can be later traded for crypto and converted into cash.

Enticed by the size and reach of the lucrative mobile gaming market, large entertainment companies and dominant tech players are looking into becoming part of this exciting ecosystem. Amazon is offering a new MMORPG hit game New World, Netflix is developing titles available on iOS, TikTok and Snapchat are experimenting with game publishing tools – the mobile game industry is undergoing a massive transformation, and everyone wants to be involved.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the social side of gaming became more important than ever. People want communication with a real person, and they want it while playing their favorite PRGs and action games. Recognizing this, many mobile game developers have been heavily investing in features like in-app chats, co-op modes, and leaderboards to improve social experiences for their users.

With the added benefits of accessibility and portability, mobile games are just as high-quality and fun as their desktop and console counterparts. It is, therefore, no wonder that more and more users are choosing to permanently switch to mobile gaming and use their smartphones to play their favorite titles even at home.

The best way to understand the success behind mobile gaming is to look at its most vital statistics. Below, you will see a comprehensible bulleted list that presents complex things in a succinct and memorable way. While we do not promise to dig real deep into the current market structure of mobile phone industry, we will tell you some interesting facts about the market size of mobile games, the biggest mobile game companies that set trends in this business, and the factors that contribute to the growth and popularity of online mobile games. And, of course, you will find out which best iPhone games and Android titles are worth trying today. So, keep reading not to miss a beat!

Gaming makes up 43% of all smartphone usage time.

• $1.6 billion is how much users spend on mobile games weekly in 2022, with the yearly player spend expected to reach $138 billion in 2025.
• Women account for 55% of all mobile gamers and spend at least 25% more time playing games than men.
• The most recent age of gamers statistics suggests that over 32% of mobile game users are aged 25-34, users aged 18-24 account for 25%, and those over 45 years old have a mere 17% share.
• The 2020 mobile gaming vs pc gaming statistics: mobile games hold the largest market share with 46% vs. 23% brought in by PC gaming.
• 78% of all mobile games downloaded in 2021 are casual games like puzzles, bubble shooters, and find-a-hidden-object titles.
• The United States ($43 billion), Japan ($20 billion), and China ($56 billion) were the three most profitable mobile gaming markets in 2021.
• In 2025, 42% of App Store’s revenue and 71% of Google Play’s revenue will have been generated by mobile games and gaming apps.
• The top-5 mobile games by consumer spend in 2021 were Roblox, Genshin Impact, Coin Master, Honor of Kings, and Candy Crush Saga.
• The top-5 publishers with the most consumer spend in 2021 were Tencent, NetEase, Activision Blizzard, Playrix, and Zynga.

In the years to come, we are likely to have more crossover games, ports and multiplatform ones. For one, this is because modern smartphones have made it totally possible to enjoy games with excellent graphics and sound on smaller screens; and, secondly, because makers of console and PC titles cannot stand by and not try to get a piece of that giant mobile game market pie. So, users are guaranteed to be spoiled for choice here.

It is also to be expected that new genres of mobile games will be created to attract audiences that do not play games right now. Developers are already trying to identify new niches and experiment with new forms of trivia, puzzle, and racing apps that can appeal to previously untapped pools of customers.

Since the earliest games like Snake that we all played on our Nokia, mobile gaming has taken a huge evolutionary step forward and become a viable alternative to consoles. Today, users no longer have to choose between enjoying the excellent quality of their favorite RPG and being able to play it on the move – the world’s best titles are available on our smartphones 24/7 with absolutely no sagging in quality, interactivity, or scale.

Our mobile game industry analysis shows that the market of mobile titles has been booming in the past years, and, with all those technological advances, it is unlikely that the growth is to slow down any time soon. If anything, we are almost guaranteed to see it achieve new heights and take over new domains, blessing us with products that are more advanced, captivating, and complex than what we have now. We at Asolytics are dying to see how current trends dominating this industry will change the way we play mobile games tomorrow.

Is mobile gaming the future of the gaming industry? Do you think the mobile gaming demographics will alter greatly as more titles targeting specific socio-economic groups are produced? Share your thoughts in the comments below! Also, if you are a game developer seeking to learn more about Game Apps Development Platforms and Engines, feel free to visit our blog – there are a lot of helpful tips and tricks to fire up your creativity!