How mobile gaming changed everything
The world is a vastly different place from what it was before the launch of the iPhone, a device that changed just about everything.
Think of what you’ve done today, and there’s every chance that your smartphone played an influential role every step of the way. Getting around, working, paying for items, and staying in touch with our loved ones is simply much easier in the smartphone era.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that the smartphone changed everything. And when you zoom in closer, the influence becomes even more pronounced. Take the gaming industry, for example. No one who played the earliest smartphone games, which were good but hardly life-changing, could have predicted just what a seismic influence mobile games would have on the entire industry.
Let’s have a closer look at the significant influence mobile gaming has had.
Increasing the number of gamers
Mobile gaming didn’t just offer a new experience for experienced gamers. For many of the world’s gamers, which amount to some 3.2 billion people in 2023, it was their first introduction to gaming. Console games may be the best of the best, but they’re also expensive. A person mildly interested in gaming would be unlikely to buy a console on a whim, but when they have a smartphone, they’ll happily download a free game to see if they enjoy it. And in many cases, they did enjoy it.
Some 35% of all gamers enjoy their hobby exclusively on their mobile phone; that’s more than a billion people who have been added to the gaming community, all thanks to the smartphone.
Influencing other games
The smartphone didn’t just allow for the development of a new type of game (mobile games). The success of mobile gaming also led to the genre having a significant influence on other types of games, too. If you play a modern PC game, for instance, you’ll invariably see quick onboarding tutorials, a tactic that has been taken straight from mobile gaming.
Mobile games also had a significant influence on online slots, which have undergone considerable development in recent years, thanks in large part to mobile gaming. The best modern slot games feature high-quality visuals, immersive narratives, and even feature soundtracks that are reminiscent of mobile game music. While digital slot games would likely still exist even without mobile games, the sheer influence of smartphone gaming means that it’s impossible to say what they would look like.
Inspiring other apps
Mobile games didn’t only influence games. They also had a significant impact on the look, feel, and functionality of smartphone apps, too. If you’ve ever used the language-learning app Duolingo, for instance, then you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about. By making the app feel like a game, Duolingo created an immersive, enjoyable experience that keeps users motivated to continue learning. This “gamification” of apps is also common in fitness apps, too.
Fitbit, for example, includes leaderboards, sets challenges, and gives out badges for successes — in effect, it’s a real-life version of a game. There’s a clear reason why app developers noted the success of mobile games and incorporated some of the components into their own apps: they make it more likely that the user will use the app, which in turn helps the user. Just think of the gamification of fitness apps, which help people get fitter while also having fun.
Raising the standards of console games
Mobile games have always been subject to continual updates, developments, and improvements. Non-mobile games, in contrast, used to be static — what you bought was what you got. The frequent updates performed by mobile games forced PC and console game developers to rethink their own approaches to updates.
Today, patches, downloadable content, expansions, and other updates are common across all gaming platforms, but that wasn’t always the case. The next time your favourite game receives an update you love, remember that you’ll have mobile gaming to thank!
