Is Mobile the Future of Gaming?

The past few months saw the new releases from both Microsoft and Sony as the newest Xbox and Playstation respectively have managed to hit record sales numbers and have shown themselves to be extremely popular - in a similar note, the other big dedicated console in the Nintendo Switch has been quietly outselling all other platforms by quite a margin since its release and helps to lead the handheld market back in to a time of popularity where it had previously fallen off largely in response to the growth of mobile gaming. The PC gaming market is also growing largely thanks to the successes found in esports - but despite the success found in the dedicated gaming markets, mobile has been growing just as quickly and has quickly become the most used platform for gaming, but is it the future for mobile, or just a small trend?

Mobile has led to changing attitudes toward gaming - One of the key factors that has helped mobile grow is within the accessibility - no specialised hardware is needed, little performance difference between devices, and low cost for the games themselves despite the expensive cost of the mobile device - this has led to a different audience being able to access the games, with many figures showing one of the fastest growing demographics is within an older audience that are primarily female, in huge contrast to the previously believe demographic of young teen males. With a wider market and audience, it has helped change attitudes toward gaming as a whole as those previously uninterest are finding newer opportunities in gaming and are helping to push the change.

More familiarity for this changing audience - The other hurdle to overcome has been within the genres of games that are readily available and providing more familiarity to this changing audience. Amongst the most popular has certainly been the growth of genres like online casinos, the best mobile slots continue to grow as the audience most likely to play are turning to mobile, and other services like betting are growing too as brick-and-mortar locations continue to close too. As the audience grows, there will likely be further changes to popular genres, but it's certainly helping to provide more familiarity to a wider range of demographics.

New markets will help grow mobile too - Whilst the previously mentioned growing scene in esports is largely tied to PC gaming, the mobile esports market is certainly looking to start covering ground as it is growing in popularity in many different markets - the growth will only continue to lead the other points mentioned and will help expand the market further as more eyes and more opportunities are drawn straight to mobile, and the growth of mobile esports as a whole may be one of the most beneficial changes to mobile gaming.

It seems less of a question on whether or not mobile gaming is the future, and more to just how quickly it can be come that future as it seems the shift is already occurring - the change is already happening, and much quicker than some had expected.