Mobile gaming experienced a surge in popularity last year, and experts predict that it won’t wane anytime soon. Among all types of gaming, the mobile platform saw the biggest increase last year as the number of users grew to 2.7 billion. Asia has the biggest user base which is currently at 1.5 billion. Europe and Africa come second with about 800 million users. While this is already remarkable, market researchers predict that the game market will observe greater success by 2023. To understand the popularity of mobile gaming, here are the following factors that are driving its success:
Safer Hobby
The year 2020 became a huge turning point for the mobile gaming industry because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Weekly mobile game downloads rose by 35% last March 2020, totaling about 1.2 billion downloads. Even the amount of spending on mobile games increased by 9%. This shows that mobile gaming has surpassed PC gaming and is becoming the primary driver of digital game consumption. Moreover, since everyone had to adhere to social distancing and quarantine protocols, mobile gaming became a source of entertainment, as well as a platform for social activity. This allowed gamers to have fun while staying safe within their own homes.
Greater Portability
Mobile gaming has become a popular indoor activity during the pandemic, but many gamers also prefer this mode because of its accessibility. Our article on PC Gaming emphasized that gamers have converted from using PCs to playing on smartphones due to economics and portability. PCs offer greater graphics and computing power, but their price and inaccessibility prompted gamers to look for another platform. As such, smartphones are becoming the world’s favorite gaming platform since it allows people to play on the go. Moreover, gamers can navigate through the game world and control their own characters by simply tapping the screen.
Improved Gameplay
Besides the convenience that mobile games offer, gamers are also converting to this mode of entertainment due to the improved graphics and controls they offer. Mobile games were able to provide a better gaming experience over the past years, thanks to the advanced technologies integrated into smartphones. For instance, smartphones have internal parts that are meticulously chosen and put together to produce high-speed designs. As such, these gadgets can offer fast reaction times and increased power — both of which are critical for sharper graphics and better gameplay.
Lower Costs
Users have also turned to mobile gaming because it can offer entertainment, safety, portability, and advanced gameplay at a more affordable price. First and foremost, smartphones can offer advanced features despite being much cheaper than PCs. On top of that, a survey demonstrated that 82% of mobile gamers prefer to download free games with ads rather than going for paid mobile games without ads. Furthermore, these individuals are willing to watch in-game ads in exchange for in-app perks. And while in-app purchases are still common among gamers, many simply prefer playing free games.
Mobile gaming has become extremely popular among users due to the numerous advantages that it can offer. While the COVID-19 pandemic drove its success, users also prefer this gaming method because of its greater portability, improved gameplay, and low costs.
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