Why Mobile Game Development Is Popular?
Despite the annual growth in the market for mobile games and entertainment applications, the coronavirus pandemic has given it additional acceleration.
Let's take a look at why mobile game development is gaining popularity.
What happened to the mobile games market last year
2020 turned out to be a successful year for the gaming industry. Going to the cinema, restaurants, and fitness clubs has been replaced by online entertainment, primarily mobile games.
Taking into account the new inputs, the analytical platform Newzoo has adjusted its forecasts for 2020, made even before the pandemic began, raising the expected volume of mobile gaming market revenues from $77.2 billion to $86.3 billion.
According to App Annie analytics, the number of downloads of mobile products on iOS and Google Play has grown globally to 130 billion in a year, which is 10% more than in 2019. At the same time, the share of games in this volume is 53 billion downloads.
Today, mobile games are the most popular video game format in the world, overtaking PCs and consoles.
In 2021, the audience for mobile applications has expanded significantly. In addition, the amount of time users spend online has also increased.
Analyzing mobile products - games and entertainment applications - similar consumption patterns are noted. In China, for example, since November 2019, the number of active users has been growing; at its peak, their number has approximately doubled.
In addition, the average length of a gaming session increased by 20%. From mid-March 2020, this trend began to manifest itself in the United States and Europe with the introduction of quarantine restrictions.
Also, if earlier they played more on weekends, then during quarantine the gaming activity of users was kept at the same level on weekdays.
Mobile games market trends in 2021
One of the main trends in 2020 is the growth in the number of M&A deals among gaming companies.
For example, among the top publishers of hyper-casual games alone - a genre that has emerged over the past couple of years and has grown to one billion monthly downloads - there have been some interesting deals.
Among them are the acquisitions of Rollic Games and Kolibri Games, as well as the $1.4 billion investment by Chinese giant Tencent in Voodoo, a French publishing company.
The total volume of transactions among game companies (all game genres) was $24.5 billion.
What's happening with game development in 2021
High competition and product improvement
In 2021, the number of gamers on all platforms (mobile games, PC, consoles) will reach 2.8 billion people, and the market turnover will be $189.3 billion.
Given the high level of competition, the process of product improvement is inevitable. In the struggle for the user and, accordingly, the profit, hybrid genres are gradually beginning to appear, the meta-game is becoming more complicated, which makes it possible to more effectively retain and monetize players. If you want to implement the same move, try game development outsourcing by Whimsy.
Expanding portfolio
Many publishers, having achieved success in one genre, begin to expand their portfolios beyond that genre. So, publishers, having made a name for themselves on hyper-casual projects, are moving towards the development of casual ones. This is done in order to diversify the business and enter new markets.
Collaborations with artists and brands
Brands, music artists and celebrities will continue to use games and other mainstream entertainment mobile products as a platform for marketing and communicating with a wider audience.
The cancellation of concert activities and other restrictions that have emerged with the pandemic will increase brands' interest in collaborating with mobile products.
Such partnerships can take the form of a short-term event (for example, Travis Scott's Fortnite concert) or long-term collaboration with an app (the American EDM duo The Chainsmokers' partnership with Beat Maker Go, rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine's partnership with the Beat Blade game).
Collaborations of this kind are beneficial to both parties. Brands receive an effective non-trivial tool to promote their product to a wide audience, and developers, in turn, can offer content and attract new players.
Over the past year, mobile games have become firmly established in the minds of consumers as one of the most accessible forms of entertainment in many ways. The rapid growth of the game development (click here) and mobile entertainment industry will continue largely.