The past five or so years has seen the fastest growing platform in gaming being on our mobile devices – there are a number of different reasons why with perhaps the biggest being a changing in audience as those who may not typically be the audience for gaming have found the passion solely through accessibility but there are a growing number of other factors too. Accessibility is another important one here – whilst buying a new console or new purpose built system for gaming comes with a large cost and another being the cost of the games themselves, we all have access to our mobile devices with games typically being free or very low in cost removing one of the biggest barriers to entry for the platform, as well as one of the causes for attracting the previously mentioned growing audience.
Another important factor may be the slowing of changes within the handheld gaming market – whilst platforms such as the Switch continue to perform incredibly well there is little in the way of direct competition for mobile devices whilst in the past there were many that could be in place to directly work against the growth. With mobile devices becoming so prevalent it is unlikely that any other handheld devices will gain such popularity outside of some more specific purposes, but it can be quite safe to say that mobile gaming is certainly the next step forward for handheld gaming. With the introduction of 5G just around the corner too, a growing number of possibilities become available particularly with new hardware and gaming choices in virtual and augmented reality.
The recent pandemic has also been a cause leading many to turn to mobile gaming as a favourite pastime particularly in certain genres – one of the faster growing areas has been within mobile gambling both before and after the return of major sporting events across the world – sites such as this Very Well casino review were amongst the most popular and growing number of services that had taken the place of sports betting, despite changes in regulation to platforms such as Gamstop which had aimed at reducing participation numbers didn’t have the desired impact during the lockdown, and now with major events returning it has opened the door for sports betting to also return as online gambling continues to be one of the most popular genres amongst mobile gamers.
There are still a number of challenges to overcome however, many devices are still limited in capabilities because of the hardware inside and the increasing costs of flagship devices mean that the most up-to-date and powerful smartphones are becoming more and more inaccessible to some – whilst many are very similar in what they offer, for more advanced titles and more demanding options may become unavailable to some players. If you are an avid mobile gamer however it’s an exciting time for you, the market is moving extremely quickly and there are a growing number of benefits for mobile gamers and will continue to be an area that changes extremely quickly.