Mobile gaming dominates the video game industry

What comes to mind when you think of gaming? Do you imagine costly consoles or ultra-fancy custom-built desktop computers? Think again — the hottest trends in gaming aren’t tied to expensive specialty equipment, but our everyday mobile devices. Mobile gaming is huge, and experts predict that it will only get bigger.

According to Statista, 2020 saw smartphone gaming revenue top out at just over $63 billion, and forecasters believe the market will top $100 billion by 2023. The message is clear: Users love mobile games. It’s part of a general trend of internet users relying more heavily on their mobile devices for everything — in 2019, half the time spent online by internet users was on mobile, compared to just 27 percent in 2013.

Mobile gaming is officially bigger than PC gaming and consoles, too. According to ScreenRant, mobile gaming made up $85 billion of a $150 billion market in 2020.

According to Polygon, mobile games provide a quick, accessible, and highly social experience, with easy-to-play games that take just a few minutes per session, compared to PC and console games, which are often more complex and take much longer per session to complete tasks and advance the story.

If you’re new to mobile gaming and looking for something to download to your device to keep you busy for just a few minutes at a time, Polygon recommends the cat-themed game Neko Atsume, or a few quick rounds of the hit game Among Us. The hugely popular augmented reality game Pokemon Go is also still available for download, or you can always try the classic addictive mobile game Candy Crush Saga.