Mobile Mavens on the biggest games industry trends of 2024: The cross-platform shift, merge’s rise, and direct-to-consumer strategies

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As soon as once more it is that point of yr the place all of us begin feeling reflective and look again on the yr simply gone.

So to that finish, we thought we might ask our Cell Experts – a set of video games business specialists – a couple of questions concerning the yr passed by. Right here we ask:

What had been the most important video games business tendencies of 2023?

Uncover extra concerning the newest video games business tendencies at Pocket Gamer Connects London on January twentieth to twenty first, 2025.

2024 marked the third consecutive yr of great headwinds in gaming — stagnating income, intensifying competitors, rising prices (notably for person acquisition), and stress on profitability.

After years of remarkable progress, the market is maturing and coming into a brand new part. 
Nonetheless, regardless of these challenges, really inventive and considerate video games, new (like, Final Conflict, Legend of Mushroom, Match Manufacturing unit), but additionally outdated (Brawl Stars) have the ability to thrive and develop.

On the participant aspect, we noticed a rising demand for significant, community-driven experiences and a notable shift towards cross-platform play.

The market is evolving at a breakneck tempo — maintaining is a problem in itself. I can’t emphasise this sufficient: the primary pattern to look at carefully is skill-based gaming. Whereas this matter has been mentioned for a while now, I firmly imagine it has a shiny future forward.

Alongside this, merge mechanics proceed to realize traction, charming new audiences throughout the globe. Some have in contrast merge video games to match-3, and I’d say that comparability holds water — they’re turning into a phenomenon in their very own proper.

On the funding aspect, the panorama is shifting considerably. Younger, proficient studios now prioritise discovering companions with experience over merely securing funding. The times when chaotic tasks may thrive on sheer visitors acquisition are lengthy gone.

Right now, the market calls for hits, and creating a success requires a unique stage of effort — basic advertising methods, data-driven market evaluation, and deep viewers analysis.

Improvement groups are aware of the dangers they face. Each day, they see examples of failed tasks and perceive how vital it’s to work with a accomplice who can present not simply monetary backing, but additionally strategic steering and long-term help

This shift marks a brand new chapter for the business, one which emphasises collaboration and sustainability over short-term wins.

AI is revolutionising recreation growth by accelerating artwork creation, streamlining advertising content material manufacturing, and enabling extra environment friendly workflows. This has empowered studios to deal with creativity and innovation whereas assembly the growing demand for high-quality content material.  

Dwell ops but once more proved to be a progress engine for a lot of studios, together with Goodville. It has change into a necessary technique for sustaining participant engagement and driving income. Common content material updates, limited-time occasions, and data-driven optimisations allowed video games to remain contemporary and related, retaining gamers invested over time.

One other new pattern value mentioning is the rise of hyper-accessible video games throughout many video games genres. Creating video games which can be straightforward to select up however laborious to grasp, interesting to a broader and extra numerous viewers.

Easy mechanics paired with layered depth are resonating throughout informal and core participant segments alike, making accessibility a defining characteristic of profitable video games in 2024.

There have been a number of tendencies, together with layoffs, AI, hybridcasual, and net retailers. I am going to deal with two. The primary is a much bigger image factor. Video games are more and more turning into an enormous half of popular culture. 2024 began with the Fallout present and ended with the second season of Arcane and Secret Stage. It is like video games are the brand new Marvel, again when the Avengers had been first a factor!

The second is the surge of curiosity in different app shops. Many carefully adopted the continued battle between Epic Video games and Apple/Google, which has led to the opening of a brand-new beforehand inaccessible market.

The EU and Japan have already opened up, and I believe the US will do the identical subsequent yr. The cracks within the 30% income share are widening! 

Stabilisation – that’s how I might describe 2024. Whereas iOS installs declined and Android noticed slight progress, revenues and CPIs fluctuated throughout areas and platforms. But, general, issues appeared to quiet down.

Regardless of investor sentiment round cellular gaming hitting an all-time low, new studios are rising, and contemporary video games are being developed. At AppAgent, we had a powerful yr with practically 40% income progress and significantly improved dynamic throughout the group after two difficult years.

2024 noticed a serious shift in how studios convey their video games to gamers. Different app shops, customized webshops, and direct-to-consumer channels moved from area of interest experiments to mainstream methods.

Studios are now not certain to conventional app shops, and plenty of embraced cross-platform publishing as a normal apply. I believe this can be a pattern that can proceed to evolve as we go into 2025.

After all, higher tooling was a vital part of this. We’ve seen an enormous shift in additional builders beginning to belief tech they haven’t constructed themselves.

Actually, a current survey we simply ran means that builders are literally beginning to choose exterior tooling to in-house options. That’s given them extra time to deal with constructing which, as we enter a vital period for recreation growth, is significant.