Is the Future of Gaming Focused on Mobile?
A few years back, the gaming industry pivoted toward mobile.
The trend surprised some, especially analysts and industry professionals who had slated the future of gaming on more tech-heavy devices. From VR to AR to next-gen consoles, the focus was legacy brands and innovative new projects. But the shift toward mobile was swift and strong.
Years later, millions of gamers around the world are still heavily invested in mobile gaming. The bulk of players are part of the hyper-casual market. Their focus is on relaxation and downtime—not competitive play. Despite the focus on casual fun, that hasn’t stopped mobile eSports from developing.
With players activated at almost every level of interest, mobile gaming is here to stay. But what types of factors have made mobile gaming so important to the gaming world? And why will these factors continue to drive the growth of mobile gaming?
Range of Choices
As outlined above, mobile gaming has a broad reach thanks to its diversity. From eSports to casual simulations, there’s a game out there for just about every type of player. But let’s highlight the range of mobile titles with a more unique favorite: poker.
When poker first became accessible as a digital game in the 1990s, part of the magic was its accessibility. The same is true today in the context of mobile gaming. Global platforms like PokerStars offer a seamless mobile experience, having built off years of browser play. Though poker isn’t a favorite for all gamers, its accessibility via mobile device highlights just how expansive mobile gaming is.
Accessibility
Speaking of accessibility, this factor has also driven interest in mobile gaming. Gamers have a huge choice of titles to sift through—but, more importantly, they have access to these titles straight from a smartphone. That puts the power of gaming into their pocket, allowing them to pick up their device and start playing.
Though connectivity is still an important factor for mobile gaming, this level of accessibility is unprecedented in the gaming world. Not even handhelds like the Switch or Steam Deck can compete, despite being built by top-tier brands.
Affordability
Another factor driving the domination of mobile gaming is its affordability. Smartphones aren’t cheap by any stretch of the imagination, especially those that are designed with gaming in mind. However, most people invest in smartphones for other reasons—which means they don’t need to shell out any more money for a gaming device.
Even more advanced and complex mobile games are more affordable than console or PC releases. Though microtransactions can become pricey in free-to-play games, players can easily shop around for titles that don’t include too many paywalls. It takes more digging and research, but they aren’t the end-all of innovative mobile games.
Improved Connectivity
As mentioned above, mobile gaming is accessible and offers on-the-go gaming. At the moment, competitive and complex mobile games require a solid connection to function optimally. This is one of the few barriers preventing more widespread mobile gaming—but it’s likely to be remedied in the years to come.
Already, 5G networks have helped boost the performance of many mobile games. Though official competitions rely on strong Wi-Fi connections, as mobile devices and mobile games advance, these demands will lessen slightly. Those advances are also likely to coincide with the rollout of even stronger mobile networks.
The Rise of Mobile eSports
Lastly, the future of mobile gaming will also be driven by the ongoing spread of mobile eSports. While mobile gaming has casual players to thank for its meteoric rise, eSports is helping generate critical interest in mobile gaming from a variety of perspectives. Should mobile eSports continue to grow its viewership numbers, that will directly feed into the number of active mobile gamers.
Once again, the rise of eSports will be closely tied to advances in mobile connectivity. It will also be driven by cross-platform play, as more PC and console hits are played across a variety of hardware.
