The mobile gaming industry has been expanding exponentially over the last couple of years and the trend is not going to stop anytime soon. The console gaming market has been growing steadily as well.
One question still lingers on – Is mobile gaming capable of overtaking the indisputable leader of gaming platforms, console gaming?
Let’s look at the statistics…
In 2018, the mobile gaming industry saw a revenue of $70.3 billion while the console gaming industry managed to rake in just $34.9 billion. A poll among female and male gamers and found out that 42% of the gamers chose smartphones as their preferred gaming device. Around 32% preferred consoles and 26% chose PCs.
Why are people preferring mobile gaming over console gaming?
Despite being superior to mobile devices in every single way possible, the console gaming market is making less revenue than the mobile gaming market. Here are some reasons that need to be considered to fully evaluate the situation.
Affordability – Let’s look at the prices first. You need to shell out $400 approximately for a PlayStation 4 as well as $50+ for the exclusive games. If you consider playing around 6-7 games every year, you can consider console gaming as an expensive hobby.
However, mobile gaming is comparatively cheap. You can download games from a wide collection directly from the App Store. Moreover, there are plenty of Free to Play and Freemium games to choose from which considerably lowers the gaming budget in the long run.
Developer support – More and more mobile casino as well as game developers have started supporting mobile gaming after recognizing the potential of their growth. Most of the online casinos nowadays offer full optimisation for iOS and Android devices. Recently, a renowned console gaming developer, Blizzard has announced a mobile exclusive version of its popular Xbox game, Diablo which can be accessed by players on both iOS as well as Android platforms.
Advancement in smartphone technology – Over the years, the smartphone segment has upped their game by including state-of-the-art technologies in their devices along with an increase in back end developer support. In terms of gaming, gyroscope-aided games and location-based games have changed our perception of what mobile gaming can do. Hardcore console games might argue that mobiles will never replicate console gaming exclusive functions like gesture detection and motion sensing, but is that really true?
At the pace at which mobile technology is evolving with in-depth stories, character development, massive online 3D worlds and immersion through Augmented reality (AR) and Virtual reality (VR), it’s just a matter of time when it will catch up with console technology. As per Yves Guillemot (the CEO of Ubisoft), mobile gaming will replace console gaming in the coming years due to the development of cloud gaming. The potential of cloud gaming has been further cemented by the launch of Stadia, Google’s cloud gaming service in 2019.
The increasing number of mobile users – Mobile users in South East Asia is increasing by leaps and bounds with new users getting their first smartphone experience. This ‘mobile first generation’ will use mobiles to perform the same tasks that the older generation used on Pcs and laptops.
With the increasing population in China, India, and Indonesia, it is not a surprise that mobile gaming developers are targetting these markets specifically for increased revenues.
Evolving demographics – Earlier, gaming was perceived as an isolated event or a single person experience. Fast forward to 2019, you will find people playing games together thanks to multiplayer options and families coming together to have fun while gaming. Research has shown that more and more parents are offering their children with gaming devices from an early stage nowadays. Around 33% of the children (under 11) who are about to reach secondary school have tablets and smartphones. This increase in mobile usage has boosted the mobile gaming industry considerably.
Will mobile gaming replace console gaming in the future?
Highly unlikely! If you are sceptical about the dropping market share of console gaming, then don let it mislead you. The future is very uncertain and you don’t know what’s gonna happen next. But, looking at the statistics, we can safely say that although the mobile gaming market is leading the gaming sector right now, the console gaming sector is steadily increasing as well. It’s just that due to the recent increase in the number of people owning mobile devices, the mobile gaming sector has increased exponentially in the last few years.
If we consider the increasing revenue of the console gaming market, it is safe to assume that mobile gaming will never replace console gaming.
