Did you know that mobile gaming is now more popular than console or PC gaming? This is because the majority of people own a smartphone. Most of them will use their smartphone to dabble in a game or two too.
Below, we discuss what smartphone games are, and why so many people are using their smartphones to play games.
What are smartphone games?
One of the brilliant things about smartphone games is that there is no one definition of them. Smartphone games are incredibly varied. You have games that are close to console in quality (Call of Duty, PUGB, and Grand Theft Auto have appeared on mobile), you have quick-play games (Angry Bird, Flappy Bird, Candy Crush, etc.), multiplayer games (Brawl Stars, Genshin Impact), and even casino games (check established review site such as CasinoSherlock for more information on that). There’s a little bit of something for everybody.
Ultimately, smartphone games are games that you can play on your phone. You don’t even need to download them from an app store. In fact, many casino games can be accessed through your web browser, making them easy to jump into.
If you can play a game on your phone, no matter what type of game it is, then you have a smartphone game. We know that this may seem obvious to most of our readers, but you might be surprised at how many people ignore smartphones as a way of playing games, which has always baffled us since there is such a wide variety of smartphone games available to play. The number is also rising every single day.
Why do people use their smartphone to play games
While 54% of all gamers currently play smartphone games, that number is only expected to continue to rise. Today, we’re going to discuss the factors behind this rise in smartphone game popularity and why people who may not touch games on console or PC are actually finding some fun in smartphone games. For instance, there are now countless elderly people playing smartphone games. We were on a plane the other day, and you wouldn’t believe the number of people playing Candy Crush. They’re the exact type of person who would never be caught sitting in front of a TV and playing a game there.
Smartphones are commonplace
Most people have smartphones, which makes it incredibly easy for them to actually play games on their smartphones. We bet you can probably name more people in your family with a smartphone than a gaming console or a computer capable of playing games.
Basically, the mobile market is an absolutely huge market. Whenever people feel bored, they can just visit their favourite app store and jump into any game they want. There are no hoops to jump through. You don’t get that with any other platform.
There’s a range of genres
If you can name a game genre, then we can almost guarantee that you’ll be able to find that game genre on your favourite smartphone app store. There are full-length RPGs, crime-focused games, farming simulators, RTS games, chess and anything else you can think of. If you can name it, you can probably play it. Even some of the biggest game brands in the world have launched mobile games, including Diablo, Warcraft (with Hearthstone), Call of Duty, Age of Empires and Grand Theft Auto.
There’s no other format to play games, aside from PC perhaps, where the games that you want to play are just so easily accessible to the players. We love this. Granted, many of the games are probably not going to be as great as if you played on a PC or console, but they come pretty close and they are still fun.
Most games are easy to jump into
While we know that there are some pretty complicated games to play out there in the world of smartphone games, many of the games that you’ll find are the most popular will be the ones that are easy to play. This means two things.
Firstly, it means that you don’t really need to learn too many game mechanics, at least at the start. You can jump into the game within a few minutes and start to have fun. A fictional war game doesn’t require you to know the backstory to play. You just jump in and start shooting! Some of the mechanics might get a bit more complicated later on but the game developers will do a good job of slowly introducing people to the various mechanics.
Secondly, it means that people can pick up and play the game whenever they’re feeling a little bit bored. For example, it is easy to load up a smartphone game on a morning commute, sitting in the airport, or when you’re in bed or sitting in front of the television. The games are easily accessible, and many of them have been designed to play for a couple of minutes at a time, so you don’t really need to carve out a massive section of your day to play them, which is always convenient.
Most games are free
Most of the top smartphone games are free to play. A person doesn’t need to invest in playing a game at all. They can just download it and jump in. Now, we know that some of you will argue that they are not strictly free to play, since you’ll need to spend some money if you want to speed up how the game works for instance; however, as long as the bulk of the game is free, people will have fun. In fact, you may be surprised to know that the vast majority of people that play smartphone games are not spending a cent on them.
Offers plenty of fun
Games are fun. Simple as that. People enjoy playing the games that they find on their smartphone devices, and smartphone games do a fantastic job of converting people into gamers.
Impressive graphics
That’s right! The games that you find on your smartphone now look great. Many of them are boasting console-level graphics, which is a far cry from the likes of games such as Snake that you would have found back on your Nokia 3310 long ago. The games are only going to continue looking better too thanks to the evolution of smartphone technology.
Mobile gaming expected to become more popular
Honestly, while 54% of gamers who own a smartphone are enjoying smartphone games nowadays, we expect this number is only going to increase. More and more games are popping up, and they’re targeted at different age groups and niches. People just love to play games, and smartphone tech is making them even more fun to play. In the future, even console and PC gamers who wouldn’t normally touch a smartphone game with a bargepole will want to have a tinker about with a smartphone game as their quality continues to push the boundaries.