With smartphone revolution clocking ten years’ run in the Indian ecosystem, mobile games have progressively ensconced themselves into our daily lives. The advent of the mobile games have changed the road-map of the gaming industry. Considering the vast mobile gaming market today, game developers are stretching their wings in the mobile space which earlier was impossible due to lack of technology advancement. Taking the opportunity of mobile gaming market more and more new developers are rushing to create new games with newer concepts and considering gaming as a viable career option.
We have listed few mobile games chronologically which have not only engaged the audience vastly in the last ten years but also have helped to consider mobile game development in the mainstream gaming limelight.
Fruit Ninja: Fruit Ninja is a video game developed by Halfbrick, launched in 2010 for iPod Touch later it was released for all apple devices, Windows 8, Windows phone, android devices, Xbox and so on. The game was quite popular among the smartphone users; in September 2010 sales of the game exceeded to three million downloads, four million in December 2010, and over 20 million across all platforms by March 2011. In May 2012, Fruit Ninja reached 300 million downloads. The low cost of the game combined with addictive game play which yielded an excellent value. In 2015, the app reached one billion downloads, in addition to that Windows Phone 7 version was the top application downloaded the week of 28 December 2010. The Xbox Live Arcade version moved over 739,000 units in its first calendar year and the iPad version of Fruit Ninja has been used to help rehabilitate stroke patients.
Temple Run: Temple Run is an endless runner mobile game developed and published by Imangi Studios. The game was first released on iOS devices later on android devices and windows phone. The game was a commercial success which has led to a sequel Temple Run 2. Collaborations with Disney to create Temple Run: Brave and Temple Run: Oz, and a third spin-off in development by Scopely titled, Temple Run: Treasure Hunters as a match-three video game. Temple Run also received activity books and a board game, with Warner Bros. Studios talking with Imangi Studios of a possible film adaptation. Literally the popularity of the game has soared the mobile gaming industry. In the iTunes Store, the game was included in the top 50 most-downloaded apps in December 2011, and eventually became the number one free iOS app in the Store. It also reached the position of the top grossing iOS app and the Android version was downloaded one million times within three days of its release.As of June 2014, Temple Run and its sequel have been downloaded over one billion times.
Candy Crush Saga: Candy Crush Saga is a free-to-play match-three puzzle video game released by King on April 12, 2012, for Facebook; other versions for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Windows 10 followed. It is a variation of their browser game Candy Crush Saga. The game has attracted 58 per cent of the players are women, while 46 per cent of the players are of Gen X, though more youths and children play it. Candy Crush Saga won the People’s Choice Awards for Favourite Mobile Game in 2016. It was also the winner of ninth International Mobile Gaming Awards for the Best Social Game in 2015. In 2013, the game had been downloaded more than 500 million times across Facebook, iOS, and Android devices and considered as the most downloaded app from the Apple App Store and had at least 6.7 million active users on a daily basis; the game had a daily revenue of $633,000 from the United States section of the iOS App Store alone. By 2014, the game had over 245 million active players each month but has since dropped off, with that count falling to around 166 million by 2016. It again rose back to 293 million active monthly players by November 2017.
Subway Surfers: Subway Surfers is an endless runner mobile game co-developed by Kiloo and SYBO Games. The game was released in 2012 with updates based on seasonal holidays. However since January 2013, the game updates have been based on a ‘World Tour’ theme, which updates the setting of the game every three (or four, usually for seasonal holidays) weeks. In 2017, Subway Surfers was the most downloaded game across the globe. In March 2018, Subway Surfers became the first game on the Google Play Store to cross the one billion downloads threshold. In May 2018, Subway Surfers crossed the two billion download mark. App Annie reported Subway Surfers as the second most downloaded game of all time in iOS App Store. In addition to the mobile game, SYBO Games introduced the Subway Surfers animated series and SUBSURF lifestyle brand and it has become the most downloaded mobile game from 2012 to 2019.
Clash of clans: Clash of clans is a freemium mobile strategy video game developed and published by Finnish game developer Supercell. The game was released for iOS platforms on August 2012, and then on Google Play for Android on October 2013. Clash of Clans tasks players to build their own town using the resources gained from attacking other players through the game’s fighting features. Clash of Clans became an App Store top five download between December 2012 and May 2013 and this success has been described as helping to usher in a new era in single-player gaming on mobile devices. In 2013, Clash of Clans was the third-highest game in revenue generated on the App Store and number one on Google Play. In February 2014 it was reported that the game was generating $654,000 in daily revenue for Supercell. In 2015, the game was the top grossing app on both the App Store and Google Play, with an estimated revenue of 1.5 million dollars per day. It is the fourth most installed app in the App Store and the seventh most installed app in the Play Store, where it had amassed 500 million downloads by 2018. As of 2018, Clash of Clans has generated more revenue than any app on the App Store, having brought in a revenue of over $6.4 billion dollars since its launch.
My Talking Tom: My Talking Tom is a virtual pet app released by Slovenian studio Outfit7 in November 2013. The Talking Tom and Friends series overall was quite popular among the audience . following the tradition app like My Talking Angela was released on December 2014. Another similar app called My Talking Hank was released on December, 2016. A sequel, My Talking Tom 2, was released on November 2018. The app has also spawned a Web series and even a television series. My Talking Tom players have to raise and nurture a cat named Tom. Another draw for children was that words spoken into the microphone could be repeated by Tom in a synthesised voice. It ranks as the fourth most downloaded game of the past decade by App Annie.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is 2016’s multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) mobile game developed and published by Shanghai Moonton Technology. The gameplay is quite strategic and it has create a lot of buzz in gaming industry.The two opposing teams fight to reach and destroy the enemy’s base while defending their own base for control of a path, the three lanes known as top, middle and bottom, which connects the bases. The game has become popular in Southeast Asia (SEA), where it was the most-downloaded free mobile game app among iPhone users in 2017. Not only that the game has also been on the front page as riot games filed a law suit because of copyright infringement, citing similarities between Mobile Legends and Riot’s League of Legends. In July 2018, a Chinese court ruled in Riot’s favour, awarding Tencent (Riot’s parent company) US$2.90 million in damages. Although the game has continued to be on the eyes of players it became among the first esports title to be included as a medal event at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.
Pokemon Go: Released in 2016, Pokemon Go is an augmented reality (AR) and location-based mobile game made by US-headquartered Niantic. Formerly Niantic Labs, an internal startup within Google, the company first gained attention for Ingress, another AR, location-based game. In Pokemon Go, players have to find, capture, and train virtual Pokemon creatures in the real world. It gained worldwide fame on the basis of its Pokemon fan following and innovative gameplay, breaking several records for downloads and revenue along the way. With players barging into inappropriate real-world locations for the sake of the game, it also gained some notoriety in its popularity. Pokemon Go currently stands as the eighth highest earning game of the past decade as per App Annie.
PUBG Mobile: The most recent title on our list of best mobile games, PUBG Mobile is a battle-royale game first released in 2018 and is developed by China-based Tencent Games. Also unlike most other games on the list, the title’s origins are from a PC game – PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds – which also made its way to consoles such as the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Given its recent release on mobile, it’s understandable that the game doesn’t feature on App Annie’s most downloaded or highest grossing games of the decade. However, one cannot deny the game’s popularity with the masses, with countries like India going so far as to attempt to curb ‘PUBG addiction’ in the youth. In its most popular play mode, players are air-dropped onto an ever-shrinking map and compete to be the last person standing. PUBG was the top-selling premium game of 2017, having sold 30 million units worldwide and grossed about $900 million. By June 2018, it had sold more than 50 million units worldwide. PUBG was again the top-selling premium game of 2018, increasing its annual sales revenue to $1.028 billion. In addition, the free-to-play PUBG Mobile has grossed a further $630.4 million as of March 2019.
PUBG Mobile was the second most-downloaded mobile game of 2018, with nearly 300 million downloads worldwide. The game’s largest market was China, which accounted for 29 per cent of the game’s downloads, followed by India and the United States each with about 10 per cent (30 million) of its downloads. It was the most-installed battle royale game of 2018, with about 200 million more installs than Fortnite, which received 82 million installs on mobile devices.
In Japan, PUBG was the most popular PC game during 2017. PUBG Mobile grossed $32.42 million in Japan during 2018. In January 2019, the PlayStation 4 version of Battlegrounds sold 7,447 copies within its first week in Japan, which placed it at number fourteen on the all format sales chart.
Ludo King : Ludo King is a free-to-play mobile game application developed by Indian studio Gametion Technologies,owned by Vikash Jaiswal. It is developed on the Unity game engine and is available on Android, iOS, Kindle, and Windows Phone platforms. The game is a modernization of the board game, famous india boardgame Ludo, which in turn is based on the ancient Indian game of Pachisi. Ludo King was one of the featured games at India’s first ever mobile eSports event held at the CII’s India Gaming Show in January 2018. On September 2018, Indian singer Mika Singh announced via Instagram that he was working on a video song titled Ludo King. The song was launched on October 23, 2018. Ludo King has also tied up with The Souled Store to launch official merchandise. Ludo King was first released on February, 2016 on the Apple App Store, and is ranked No 1 in the Top Free Games Section. Ludo King won the Mobile and Tablet Game: Arcade/ Casual (International) in Gaming at the 19th FICCI FRAMES Best Animated Frames (BAF) Awards. In addition to that Ludo King was selected as Best Casual Game of 2018 on Google Play Store by popular vote. In 2016, Ludo King recorded four million installs and went up to 57 million in 2017, crossing 118 million in 2018.
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