Mobile game

A mobile game is a video game played on a mobile device. This includes games on mobile phones like feature phones or smartphones, as well as tablets, PDAs, handheld game consoles, portable media players, and even graphing calculators. These games can be played with or without an internet connection through network availability.

The earliest known mobile game was a version of Tetris on the Hagenuk MT-2000 in 1994. A very popular early mobile game was Snake, launched by Nokia in 1997. Snake was pre-installed on many Nokia phones and was played on around 350 million devices around the world.

Mobile gaming grew quickly after the introduction of app stores in 2008, such as the iOS App Store from Apple. These stores made it easy for people to download games and other apps directly to their phones. Today, mobile gaming is a huge part of the video game industry, making up about 49% of all gaming revenue worldwide in 2025.

History

Main article: History of mobile games

In the late 1990s, mobile phones became very common, leading to fast improvements in their technology. This allowed for more advanced games to be created. One of the first popular mobile games was a version of Snake that Nokia included on its phones starting in 1997.

The launch of i-mode by NTT Docomo in Japan in 1999 let people download games to their smartphones. This led to many new games from famous developers. When Apple launched the iPhone in 2007 and the App Store in 2008, it changed mobile gaming forever. The iPhone’s features, like its touchscreen, made it perfect for games, and the App Store made it easy for anyone to create and share games. Games like Angry Birds and Cut the Rope found new ways to make money, changing how games were sold.

Later, games like Candy Crush Saga and Puzzle & Dragons used a system where players could buy extra lives to keep playing. This “freemium” model became very popular. Mobile gaming grew quickly, especially in China, and by 2016, top games were making over $100 million a year. Mobile games also led to new types of games, like hyper-casual games and location-based games such as Pokémon Go.

Different platforms

Main article: Mobile software

Mobile games can run on many different devices and systems. In the past, they used platforms like Palm OS, Symbian, and Java. Today, most mobile games are made for Apple's iOS and Google's Android. These platforms are popular because many people use them.

Developers often use a tool called Unity to create mobile games because it works well on different devices. Apple also offers special technologies like Metal to help developers make better games.

Monetization

See also: Video game monetization

With the arrival of the iOS App Store and in-app purchases in 2009, mobile games began using new ways to earn money. Developers can choose from several models or mix them together.

The premium model means players pay for the whole game upfront. Some games also offer extra downloadable content to buy separately. The freemium model gives players a small part of the game for free, like a game demo, and then lets them buy the rest. The free-to-play model lets anyone play for free but may slow progress until players choose to make in-app purchases. The advertising-supported model is free to download but shows ads that players must watch before continuing. Some games use a subscription model, where players pay a monthly fee for extra features.

Over time, developers have found that only a few players spend money, but those players can spend a lot. These players are nicknamed “whales.”

Common limits of mobile games

Mobile games are often smaller than games you might find on a PC or gaming console. This is because mobile devices have limited storage and memory. Because of these limits, many big PC and console games cannot be moved directly to mobile devices. Another challenge for game makers is explaining their game well enough so that people know what they're getting before they buy it.

Location-based mobile games

Games played on mobile devices that use GPS are called location-based games or location-based mobile games. In these games, the player's real-world position and movement become important parts of the gameplay. Unlike normal mobile games, where you can play anywhere, location-based games use your location as a key element.

One well-known example is geocaching, an outdoor activity you can play on any mobile device with a GPS receiver. Some early location-based games, like BotFighters from 2001, were more like research projects than big commercial hits. Some newer games, such as Pokémon Go from 2016, also use augmented reality to enhance the experience.

Augmented reality games

Main article: Augmented reality

Mobile devices can be used to play Augmented reality (AR) games. These games use the device's camera to show the real world, and then add special pictures or objects on top of what the camera sees. This lets players interact with both the real world and the game at the same time.

A famous example is Pokémon Go from 2016, where players go to different places and use AR to find and catch Pokémon creatures. After that, many other AR games tried to succeed, but few have done as well as Pokémon Go. Some, like Microsoft's Minecraft Earth and Niantic's Catan: World Explorers, have stopped being made.

Multipurpose games

As mobile devices are common in many homes, especially in developed countries, more games are being made for educational, lifestyle, and health purposes. These games can help with things like speech therapy, helping children in hospitals recover, learning new habits, and even studying languages.

Some apps do similar things but aren’t exactly games; these are called gamified apps. It can sometimes be hard to tell where games end and gamified apps begin.

Multiplayer mobile games

Many mobile games let multiple players play together, either through the internet or by connecting devices directly using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or similar technology.

There are different ways to enjoy multiplayer games on mobile phones. In live tournaments, players from all over the world are matched to compete at the same time, using networks like Game Center, Google Play Games, and Facebook. In turn-based tournaments, players take turns one after another, and their moves are shown to others later. This lets players compete without needing to be online together the whole time. Some games also use screen recordings to make it feel like you are always playing against a real person.

Distribution

Mobile games can be found on devices in a few different ways. They can be downloaded over the air using wireless networks, loaded onto a phone using a computer and a cable, already installed on the device when you buy it, or downloaded directly from a website on your phone's browser.

Before the Apple App Store, most mobile games in the US were sold by companies like AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Corporation, and T-Mobile US. In Europe, games were sold by these companies or through other stores. Today, most mobile games are sold through app stores like the Apple's iOS App Store for systems such as Apple iOS, Google Android, and Microsoft Windows Phone.

Many mobile games are free to download but show ads, like Flappy Bird and Doodle Jump. Some games use a "freemium" model where you can buy extra items inside the game. Popular companies that make mobile games include Gameloft and King.