Mobile Game Evolution: How mobile gaming has changed in the years

The mobile gaming industry is booming. Smartphones have become more affordable and the industry has overtaken PC and console as the biggest mobile gaming category.

Games ventured from board games to PC games to now mobile games. One of the popular family game of snakes and ladder which kids enjoyed can now be played on the phone with a sibling in a multiple mode.

But was this always the case? The answer is no. It started in 1990’s with Nokia’s hugely successful game, Snake, which came as a feature on the phone itself. Users didn’t need to search or download a thing. Today, getting your hands on a mobile game requires searching, or browsing by categories, sometimes spending money, and then downloading it on your mobile device.

The dawn of mobile

Japan was the first country to commercialize mobile games. This spread through to Asia, Europe, North America and eventually the rest of the world where smartphones were available. It was only when Apple launched its app store that the concept of gaming changed dramatically. Screens had color, consumer behavior changed, and almost everyone with a smartphone began downloading games.

As phones got smarter, so did the games.

Mobile breaks out of phones

Although playing games on mobile phones is easy and fun, it sometimes brings with it inconveniences. We’ve all experienced the pains of playing for too long; painful neck, sore eyes from staring at a small screen for too long, and the nuisance of needing to plug in when the mobile runs out of battery.

The last few years have brought with them changes to the mobile gaming industry in that we can now play games that were once restricted to mobile, on desktop. Android emulators allow users to play almost any game on PC and Mac in exactly the same way as they would on mobile.

Having a larger screen to play on is transforming the mobile gaming world. We are no longer limited to mobile screens when playing mobile games.

The significant rise in mobile gaming has drawn advertisers, as it presents an opportunity to easily reach millions of users. Because of the high demand for free mobile games to download today, in-app advertising platforms like Appnext have become a way for app developers to connect with each other in order to advertise their game within other games. The technique of not letting the player be able to move on in a game, for example, needing to wait for a video to complete or a task to finish provided advertisers with a recipe for success.

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Women and gaming

Women now make up a large portion of the mobile gaming market. But this wasn’t always the case. In the 1990s female gamers were regarded as a minority, but surveys show that percentage of female gamers have increased. The numbers have balanced out and now mirror the male to female ratio in our modern society.

A recent study revealed that women make more in-app purchases than men. They also spend more time in gaming apps compared to men. This indicates a shift in the mobile gaming industry, that the audience is no longer mostly men.

Mobile games rely on connectivity

Since 80 percent of internet users own a smartphone, it is no surprise that more mobile games now require connectivity. This serves the purpose of making in-app purchases, to show ads in the middle of games, or simply to cater for the multiplayer option in games.

This means that for some games, an internet connection is a must. Before internet access was available on mobiles we could play any game at any time. This is no longer the case as some games are only playable with a connection to the internet.

The mobile gaming world has transformed at lightning speed over the last 10 years, and there is no doubt that it’ll continue to grow and evolve in ways we cannot imagine. With augmented reality and virtual reality now at our fingertips, we are excited to see what other developments are coming our way in the next 10 years. Did you find this article informative and helpful. Have we left out any options? Let us know your views in the comment section.