Mobile Gaming to Continue to Transform eSports Throughout 2024 and Beyond

While not exactly the pillars of the industry, mobile games continue to make noise in eSports. Usually, you’d think of the highly-skilled titles of Dota 2 and Counter-Strike as the main eSports. Yet, at the time of writing the combined prize pools of Honor of Kings had the game ranked sixth. In tenth was PUBG Mobile. Plus, 12th, 13th, and 14th of the largest eSports prize poolsever come from Honor of Kings (Arena of Valor).

It’s a significant industry that is growing rapidly. It could be perceived as having two distinctfacets. While it’s still competitive gaming, the controls and device capacities do make adistinction. Still, you could call Honor of Kings, PUBG Mobile, and Clash of Clans the LoL, CS,and Dota 2 of mobile eSports. As smartphones continue to grow in influence globally, the powerof mobile gaming will only increase.

Natural Draw of Mobile as an Entertainment Form

Gaming has become such a mainstream form of entertainment that it’s already influencing droves of apps that otherwise wouldn’t have anything to do with games. Gamification has takenover, and smartphones are the key to this. Now, you’ll find gamified apps in health, law, finance,education, assistance, business, and more. Much of this is down to the desire to keep eyes onthe screen but also make use of the inherently fun touch-screen controls.

It’s simply a very intuitive interface. Throw in that the screen’s too small to offer easy use formany important programs, and gamification becomes the method of making apps more appealing. Above all else, though, it’s the sheer accessibility. Smartphones have become daily necessities in many regions, and are becoming key in the rest. This opens up developers tohuge audiences.

Even before mobile eSports truly took root, online casinos had pivoted to mobile platforms with dedicated apps. Well over a decade ago, the potential of smartphones was clocked, and gameswere being developed with a mobile-first mentality. Now, mobile casinos boast everything that web-based platforms do, but are more popular thanks to their intuitive controls and convenience.

Mobile eSports Surging to Prominence

Arguably, the eSports scene is primarily geared towards PC titles. They get the most coverage,the most viewership, and the most cash. Mobile eSports looks primed to continue to surge in allof these areas, even with prize pools already ranking highly overall. A lot of this comes down to the complete accessibility of the hardware and the usually free apps.

As better smartphone technology becomes more accessible, higher-quality gaming will be more available to all. That said, even in the current state of play, fairly low-end smartphones run competitive mobile games well enough. Primarily, it’s about having a strong internet connection.Already, over 60 percent of worldwide mobile connections run on 4G, and that will only continue to grow, as will the amount of mobile connections.

Another major factor will be the spotlight being turned to mobile eSports. A big change this year will be the arrival of the 2024 Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Replacing the Gamers8 festival, it’s got a $60 million total prize pool spread fairly evenly across its events, and will stand as one of the major tournaments for several of the biggest titles. On top of this, wehave the Snapdragon Pro Series that makes mobile eSports even more available around the world thanks to its open-door policy. Anyone can enter and compete from anywhere!

Mobile eSports is gaining traction. It’s already very widely competed in, and soon its prize pools and perhaps even viewership figures will be undeniably strong. While not as respected as mainline eSports, smartphone games are making the right moves to gain that kind of credibility down the line.