Do you have any games on your phone? If there was ever a moment to immerse yourself in the huge world of mobile games, this is it. While the mobile gaming industry is still relatively new, it has grown into a global phenomenon with hundreds of millions of enthusiastic players.
If you’ve ever played mobile games, you know they’re a terrific way to take your mind off things and cheer yourself up when you’re feeling down. And despite the occasional dismissive remarks from the gaming community, they remain immensely popular because they’re so accessible. Anyone with a smartphone can download a game and start playing. The best part is you can bring them with you anywhere you go.
There’s a mobile game for everyone, from basic puzzle games to massively multiplayer online role-playing games with thousands of players working together to complete tasks.
The idea of playing games on a phone was first introduced in the early days of mobile phone technology. Back then, people were thrilled to play something as simple as the classic Snake game. Since technology and mobile phones improved, so did the games you could run on them.
With microchips becoming smaller and cheaper, mobile phones gained more powerful processors and sharper graphics. Developers saw an opportunity to capitalize on a whole new gaming sector that kept expanding.
Mobile phone technology was advancing at breakneck speed, and it was obvious that there was a market for mobile games, so game developers started making games tailored for this market. They studied how people interact with their phones and the circumstances in which they might use them to play mobile games.
This allowed them to create games that were compatible with smaller screens, could be played in short bursts, and had features like easy-to-access pause and navigation buttons.
It also gave rise to sales models for these games. So-called ‘freemium’ games, where the initial download is free, but micropayments are required to unlock in-game milestones faster, have become a huge hit in the mobile gaming market.
People can also pay a small fee to play mobile games without ads, essentially giving them a choice between paying with money or their time to enjoy the games they want to.
These days, the mobile gaming business is huge, with more than 2.2 billion people playing on their smartphones and other mobile devices throughout the world. Gaming accounts for nearly half of all smartphone usage, and the market is worth more than 76 billion dollars. When you consider these figures, it comes as no surprise that new and exciting games are constantly being developed and released as the industry continues to grow.
Garena Free Fire
Also referred to as Free Fire, this is a battle royale game for both iOS and Android users. In the year 2019, Garena Free Fire turned out to be the mobile game that was downloaded the highest number of times in the world and won Google Play Store’s award. By May 2020, Free Fire had surpassed 80 million daily active users and grossed over $1 billion.
On September 28, 2021, we saw the release of Free Fire Max, a graphically improved version of Free Fire.
This is a third-person action-adventure battle royale game and it’s only available online. Up to 50 players parachute onto an island in quest of weapons and equipment in order to kill their opponents in a battle royale match. Players can choose their starting position and equip themselves with supplies and weapons that will help them survive longer in battle.
This game stands out through its ability to keep players entertained and engaged through content and rewards. Since it prioritizes performance, the graphics are not particularly impressive, but this can be a plus for phones with mid- or low specifications.
Garena Free Fire is one of the most popular mobile games of its kind, alongside PUBG Mobile, Fortnite Battle Royale, and Call of Duty: Mobile. It is especially popular in India, Latin America, and SE Asia.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile
PUBG Mobile, short form of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, is a shooter video game created by LightSpeed, Tencent Games. The game was released for iOS and Android on March 19, 2018. On Google Play and Apple App Store combined, PUBG Mobile amassed 1 billion downloads as of March 2021. In 2020 it was grossing more than $2.6 billion and was that year’s highest-grossing game. By August 2021, it has reached a total revenue of $6.2 billion.
Similar to the original PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, one hundred players are parachuted onto a secluded island where they battle it out to be the final survivor. Each match begins with choosing to play solo or in a team of a maximum of four, first (FPP) or third (TPP) person perspective, and the map on which the battle will take place.
Once everyone jumps off the plane, a safe zone is established, which shrinks every few minutes, and those outside it begin to lose health. The players need to make sure they’re within the safe zone before their health points run out and they die.
They don’t have any equipment at the start and need to look for weapons, armor, vehicles, and additional equipment.
Besides the features found in the original PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, the mobile edition contains Log-in Bonuses, Missions and micro-goals, Crew recruitment, auto-loot features, and some improvements to the Map and Compass to make the game easier to play on mobile devices.
Although it has been praised as a technical marvel, PUBG Mobile has had its share of controversy. India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology banned it in September 2020. As a result, Tencent Games terminated access and service to users in India, but people continued to play the game using VPNs. As you’d expect, the ban added to its popularity.
Since the rights to publish PUBG Mobile in India were returned to Krafton, the company relaunched the game under a new name Battlegrounds Mobile India, only available for players in India.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
Developed and published by Moonton, a subsidiary of ByteDance, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is a mobile multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) released in 2016 that has grown in popularity in Southeast Asia and was picked as one of the titles for the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is played in two teams that compete to reach and demolish the base of the opposite player whilst protecting their base. They need to be in charge of a path that joins the bases and is divided into lanes dubbed Top, Middle & Bottom.
Minions, the computer-controlled characters that are weak, spawn in team bases and travel the three lanes to the opposing team’s base while engaging in combat with adversaries and turrets.
When Mobile Legends first came out in 2016, it had a total of ten heroes. This number increased to 70 by November 2018 and 103 by December 2020. As a way of enhancing the game’s appeal, Moonton works with Southeast Asian countries to develop new characters based on each country’s folklore and history.