The constant struggle between computers and consoles has become a competition for second place among the most popular gaming platforms. It would seem that the top spot firmly belongs to mobile devices.
How Many People Play Mobile Games?
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The numbers tell a rather convincing story supporting mobile gaming supremacy. In 2020, there were more than 2.4 billion people playing mobile games in the world. By the end of 2021, that number will rise to 2.7 billion. That is roughly one-third of the entire human population. Gaming revenue tells a similar story. Mobile gaming made around $165 billion in 2020, which is 51% of the revenue of the entire gaming industry. More than half of it came from mobile gaming. In the United States alone, 209 million people play mobile games. More than half of them play more than 10 times a week, making them regular players. Demographically speaking, more than 50% of them are older than 35 and the majority of them are women.
Accessibility
The simple truth is that gaming on mobile devices is just more accessible than on any other platform. One of the reasons for the skyrocketing popularity of online gambling is that the industry invested a lot of money in making their applications mobile-friendly. Almost all casinos have great mobile apps for their players. You can hop over to casino-bros.com/ca/ and compare them. The ability to enjoy your games wherever you are is simply too convenient to pass. Even when they are at their homes, people often prefer playing on their phones and tablets, because it is just easier. Other developers weren’t lazy either and have expended a lot of time and effort in attracting mobile gamers. All big gaming studios have mobile divisions these days, pouring money and coding hours into the market.
Everybody Has A Smartphone
Gaming PCs are usually very expensive, especially these days with the prices of graphic cards being what it is. A low-end computer for gaming can easily cost north of $1,000. The same can be said about gaming consoles. The current generation, released last year, costs around $450, for either Sony PlayStation 5 or Microsoft Xbox Series X. Compared to the prices of smartphones and tablets, that is rather expensive and many people can’t afford them. On the other hand, most of us already have a mobile phone, since it has become a necessity in modern society. Since you have it, you might as well use it to have some fun with it.
5G Has Arrived
The new mobile internet protocol promises to revolutionize the way we connect to the world wide web. 5G allows speeds that can finally rival Wi-Fi and home networks, and it can deliver them anywhere. Previously, one of the biggest issues for mobile gamers for connecting to the Internet, because the speed was too low for any meaningful gaming, especially for multiplayer games. Many areas didn’t have any coverage at all, forcing them to play either at home or in areas with Wi-Fi coverage. 5G will change all that. It is slowly spreading in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States, allowing everyone to have an excellent connection.
Games
As we mentioned before, the dominance of mobile gaming hasn’t gone unnoticed by big gaming studios. In the early days, mobile games were mostly created by small, independent developers. Some of them raked in millions, making fairly simple games that captured the attention of gamers. In the last few years, we have witnessed big players joining the fray and saturating the market with high-end games, whose budgets begin to rival those of AAA PC and console titles. This has a snowball effect on the popularity of mobile gaming, as more and better titles mean more gamers.