With the rising ubiquity and power of smartphones, mobile gaming has risen from a sideshow when compared to the console and PC gaming market, to a sector that made almost half of the industry’s global revenue in 2018.
Mobile phones are continually getting more adaptable, more robust, and more suited for use in gaming.
So, if you are looking for an enjoyable gaming experience to tide you over to the next Witcher game or Red Dead update, (and one that you can carry around in your pocket), here is our list of the best mobile gaming apps currently available, broken down by genre.
Role-Playing Games (RPGs)
The Banner Saga
Available for both iPhone and Android devices, the Banner Sage is a combination of RPG and real-time strategy notes, with tactical combat, difficult choices, a beautiful art style, and a fantastic musical score.
Guide your caravan through the bleak Nordic landscape of the game, fighting and trading to stay alive in a world that is both unforgivingly hard and hugely enjoyable.
Journey
Journey could be classified as a platformer as much as an RPG, at least in terms of gameplay. But we’ve put it in this section because the core of the game is about experiencing it, not about how good the mechanics are.
The game sees you playing as a hooded figure on a journey to the top of a distant mountain. You can only communicate in musical tones, as can the other travelers you meet along the way, who are actually other players.
The game is beautiful, touching, a real pleasure to play, and with its relatively short play time, it doesn’t get boring.
First Person Shooters (FPS)
Call of Duty: Mobile
A mobile port of the big daddy of military shooters, Call of Duty: Mobile is excellent, with responsive touchscreen controls, a bunch of different modes, and, best of all, lack of any upfront cost.
There is, of course, a fair amount of monetization and pay-to-win mechanics in the background, but those are pretty common in AAA games these days, so it’s not that big an issue.
PUBG Mobile
PUBG Mobile gives you everything you might expect from vanilla PUBG, only on a smaller screen with scaled back graphics. Which is to say it’s still an enjoyable game. So go get that chicken dinner!
The Best Indian PUBG Mobile Players
Casino
Betway
Companies like Betway Casino go out of their way to provide players with a safe and secure playing environment where you can enjoy your favorite casino games.
From playing hands of poker with people on the other side of the globe to spinning a virtual roulette wheel, online casino gaming apps offer you a chance to enjoy everything that’s great about visiting a casino, from the tension of the table games to the enjoyment of good old-fashioned virtual slot machines, without ever needing to leave the house.
Strategy
Game Dev Tycoon
Lading squarely on the nose, Game Dev Tycoon puts you in charge of a gaming app development studio in an environment that will immediately feel familiar to anyone that has ever played any other game with the word “Tycoon” in the title.
Keep your workers happy, try and keep crunch time to a minimum, and use new technology and game engines to create the next DOOM Eternal and not the next Anthem.
Board Game
Lords of Waterdeep
Board games are still a thriving market, from the timeless classics like Scrabble to the Kickstarter exclusives, and some of the best of them have been adapted to mobile platforms.
Lords of Waterdeep is a strategy and worker placement game that sees players vying for power in a vast city set in one of the fictional game settings of the Dungeons and Dragons RPG.
The game marries reasonably simple rules with in-depth strategies to create a gameplay that won’t take you all weekend to master but still provides a challenge. Much like the original board game, the Lords of Waterdeep is fast, fun, and will have you scheming over steepled fingers.
