The Future of Mobile Games 2019 Forecast

The future of gaming is bright. The future of mobile gaming shines even brighter. Let’s take a look at exactly where we’re headed.

Esports is Popular and Profitable

Esports Revenue Growth - Source: Newzoo

In more recent years, gaming has gone from being a mere after school distraction to a full blown career bringing income and fame. #Esports is growing in profit and in audience numbers. Esports is competitive video gaming, where individual gamers and professional teams compete for IRL prizes and bragging rights. In 2018, Esports made $900M in revenue. The highest valued Esport company, Cloud9, is currently worth $310M. So let’s think. When the people who are playing games make money, naturally the people who are developing games make money too.

That’s definitely true.

Gaming Industry Forecasted to Surpass $150 Bn Benchmark

Games Market - Source: Newzoo

According to Newzoo, the gaming industry produced a revenue of $134.9 Bn in 2018 and is projected to generate revenues up to $174 Bn by 2021. That’s not all. Mobile gaming is getting bigger and better. In 2018, all mobile apps generated $87.1Bn in revenue. Mobile games made up a whopping $63.2Bn of this chunk. That’s almost as much as what console and PC gaming make combined. Further, Newzoo forecasts that mobile gaming will become a $100Bn business by the end of 2021.

Mobile Gaming leading the race

So, why is mobile gaming gaining so much momentum?

The simple answer is mobile gaming lays in the palm of your hand. You don’t need to set up a console. There are no controllers, no wires, no extra monitor. There’s only your smartphone. It’s easy. It’s fast. It’s fun.

Mobile Games make up 75% of Mobile Apps

Now let’s look at a more thorough answer. Mobile gaming is growing because people are becoming more mobile. Smartphone ownership has been on a continuous uphill climb since 2007, when Apple released its very first iPhone. To date, there are at least 2 billion people using smartphones. More smartphones mean more possible mobile game players. But, more smartphones also leads to another important trend: more games and apps in the app stores and therefore more competition.

Mobile App Market - Source: Newzoo

When the Apple App Store and Google Play Store first launched, the competition was slim. The mobile app market was a fairly unsaturated one. Today, the mobile app market is crowded and let’s venture further to even say overcrowded. Apple’s and Google’s app stores combined offer more than 4 million apps. An entire 75% of these mobile apps are mobile games. More smartphones, more apps, more mobile games, more mobile game players.

Moreover, mobile gaming is less expensive than console or PC gaming. Many games are free to play using in-app purchases or ads to raise revenue instead. Being free to install, mobile games have a steady advantage over console and PC games. Players don’t have to worry about losing money over a game they might not like. This makes mobile games appealing to serious gamers as well as to those who need something to kill 10 or 20 minutes of their day with. That brings us to the topic of #hypercasual games.

People are Addicted to Hyper Casual Games

Hyper casual games go as far back as Snake on your Nokia phone. A game is hypercasual when it's easy to play and highly addictive, making it perfect for mobile. Some examples are Temple Run, Candy Crush and Floppy Bird.

Hyper Casual Games - Source: Apple App Store

At the beginning, levels are relatively simple to beat, making the player crave that win. Once a player is addicted the levels start to get more difficult, which only pushes the player to play more. Many of these hyper-casual games involve a time delay model. You get 5 lives to play and then you have to wait 2 hours or so for more lives. To continue playing, a player can either buy lives or invite friends. In-app purchases generate revenue and friend invites get new players into the game. Both factors help the mobile gaming industry grow. Other types of easy to play and addicting mobile games, like tycoon games (I love playing the Idle Miner Tycoon), life simulator games like Fallout Shelter and trivia games like HQ Trivia, have also contributed to the mobile gaming boom.

Cloud Gaming, the Next Big Thing

Another reason gaming is moving towards mobile is the rise of cloud gaming. Smartphones evolved, becoming powerful cameras, efficient work offices, accurate fitness trackers and more. Evolution holds no exception when it comes to mobile gaming. Major companies like Netflix, Microsoft and Google are figuring out ways to leverage the cloud market for mobile gaming. Cloud gaming promises to bring the high quality of console games to mobile devices. Imagine a whole world of console gaming in the palm of your hand. Now that's pretty exciting.

Bandersnatch, interactive Netflix show - Source: Netflix

So how does cloud gaming work?

Cloud gaming is essentially interactive video streaming and we’re already there with Netflix’s Bandersnatch. Sugar puffs or Frosties? Either way, it’s Black Mirror so something bad is bound to happen.

Basically, cloud gaming takes the stress of running and rendering a game away from your device. This allows for higher quality graphics and interactions on smaller hardware: mobile devices. Following a similar logic to that of Bandersnatch, the cloud stores, processes and runs the game. A player’s device then streams the game as a video. The player’s actionable input (Sugar Puff or Frosties) gets sent to the cloud where it’s processed and the output (something bad) comes back to the player’s streaming video. All this happens in real time. Cloud gaming is set to revolutionize the gaming industry. We’re all just waiting for it to happen.

Gaming Projects from Microsoft and Nintendo

And seems like we’ll still be waiting a couple years. Although cloud gaming has been a big topic of conversation, Microsoft has only started testing their Project xCloud services this year.

Another big name playing with that idea is Nintendo. A year ago Nintendo announced Mario Kart Tour for mobile. Unfortunately, they recently announced that there would be a delay in the game’s release. We’ll have to wait until summer 2019 to be throwing banana peels at our friends.

Nonetheless, within the next few years, mobile gaming is bound to take over. That much is clear since mobile devices already have.

How do you see the future of the mobile gaming industry?

Let me know in the comments below.

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