New Trends In Mobile Gaming

Mobile gaming is all around you! Just pay closer attention while sitting in your favorite cafe, or riding a train to work, and you will notice that the minority of people holding phones in their hands are chatting with friends and replying to emails. The majority of them are playing mobile games to keep themselves busy and to get their daily dose of entertainment.

Statista, website specialized in worldwide statistics, says that in 2016 there were 201 million mobile gamers in India, and they predict that number will grow to 368 million by 2022. According to this source, India is one of the countries with the highest growth in online game downloads on app stores with a growth rate of 165 percent between 2016 to 2018. After all, what is not to love – online gaming provides fun no matter where you are and what you do, and you can play a whole plethora of genres: from simple card games, to complicated and demanding strategy games that require a lot of skill and practice. We have come a long way from Tetris and solitaire, and every year we see new trends popping up.

Here are some of the latest mobile gaming trends.

Games Oriented Towards Female Audience

Let’s face it, gaming in general is usually perceived as something created for men, by men. No wonder, because in the past, video games were not only played mostly by males but also targeted towards them. With a few exceptions of good old family-oriented video games, such as Lion King and Aladdin, it is impossible to remember a single SNES or SEGA game targeted towards women.

The mobile gaming industry, on the other hand, jumped the bandwagon pretty quickly and became focused on this neglected market segment. As a result, in 2018, women were bigger mobile gaming consumers than men. However, to win them over, gaming companies must fulfill certain conditions, as women prefer to play games with female characters (both heroes and villains) that are esthetically pleasing and provide great customization possibilities. According to some research, women are also willing to pay for additional accessories and features, but only as long as it is not a necessity to progress, but a nice additional feature.

Pay to Play and Pay to Win

If you ask mobile gamers what they hate the most, it will be Pay to Play games, as well as Pay to Win apps. Despite the fact that almost all mobile games remain completely free to download, there is a clear trend of monetization. For instance, players, theoretically, can play for free, but it will take them so long and be so boring, they will sooner or later purchase a tool or a set of features that will help them speed up the process and progress faster.

As you can imagine, this approach is heavily criticized by players who are not willing to take the easy way out and want to enjoy the entire gaming process. Some big mobile gaming hits, such as Covet Fashion Game (a game that was downloaded 300,000 times in June 2020 alone), have experienced backlash by their own users after they adjusted certain features and put price tags on them. Loyal Covet customers, who have been playing for years and building impressive fashion portfolios, were bitter and angry as their hard effort was not only prized at a few bucks but accessible to everyone with some spare cash.

Franchises Go Mobile

Before the PokemonGo boom in 2016, only a few brands dedicated time and knowledge to develop mobile apps for their franchise. But after the immense success of Pokemon, and millions of people walking around like zombies trying to catch rare imaginary beings, one thing was clear – to be successful, franchises must go mobile.

One of the most successful examples of this trend is DC Legends, a simple RPG that introduces the general public to a whole plethora of DC comic book characters. And while, of course, you can have Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman on your team, you can also play with or against characters such as Firestorm, Raven, Spectre, and many more. And while this mobile game didn’t bring millions and millions of dollars as movies do, it helped them build brand awareness to an unprecedented level.

Nowadays, every movie, brand, and band, has seasonal gaming apps that build connections with their customer base, reassure their loyalty, and of course, bring some extra cash into the house.

5G Technology for Even Better Gaming Experience

Some of us can’t wait for 5G, others are so scared of it they believe in conspiracy theories. Whatever your opinion may be, 5G technologies will highly affect the way we play our mobile games. 5G will provide us with the internet faster than ever before and will give the ability to interconnect accounts on devices, consoles, and gadgets. Better speed, stronger connection, wider coverage, and low latency will take the entire mobile gaming experience to a whole new level.

Gaming in Golden Years

Sure, games are mostly played by the young and beautiful, but the success of Candy Crush Saga motivated mobile gaming companies to take a look at the bigger picture. While the majority of players who enjoyed this highly addictive game were indeed young, there was also a significant number of users aged over 50. Pensioners and those over 50, represent a new, niche audience for mobile gaming companies, and they, just like women, have their own expectations and preferences.

People over 50 are taking the mobile industry by storm, and colorful and simple games, similar to Tetris are among their favorites. They also prefer games with simple rules, that are easy to follow, and aren’t as competitive as, for instance, some RPG games. Another popular type of game are hidden object games, especially when played with no time limit, so they can play as slow or as fast as they like, as well as farming and landscaping games that provide good old fashioned fun, with no violence, blood, guts, guns, and bad language.