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Mobile Games Developer Trends Spring 2018: Augmented reality and real-time strategy a focus for devs

What's hot and what's not in the mobile games industry

Mobile Games Developer Trends Spring 2018: Augmented reality and real-time strategy a focus for devs

We’re almost a third of the way through the year but it’s already set to be another exciting year for games.

Augmented reality gaming has come to the fore with games like Jurassic World Alive and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite on the horizon, while instant gaming like we’ve seen on Facebook could herald the start of new chat app games platforms.

It’s certainly an exciting time for the new, but the old guard aren’t about to disappear. In fact, the big publishers are tightening their grip on the top download and grossing charts, just take a look at what King’s doing with its live operations strategy on Candy Crush Saga - propelling it back to the top of the rankings.

But those are just a small number of trends we’ve noticed - what do developers think are the biggest opportunities in the mobile games market right now?

To learn more about the challenges and opportunities in the sector, we surveyed 250 industry professionals to get your opinion on the hottest trends right now.

You can read the full Mobile Games Developer Trends Survey in association with The Specialist Works right here.

Not registered? You'll need to sign up to the Steel Media Business Network to read the full report for free. It’ll appear under ‘Your Downloads’ in the left column of your profile.

Hot topics

As we mentioned, AR is proving particularly popular amongst developers, with 43 per cent of survey respondents believing it’s the hottest trend in mobile right now.

Real-time competitive multiplayer games (as show by those hit titles from Asia we mentioned earlier) was also seen by 41 per cent of respondents as a big industry trend.

Other notable trends developers cited were influencer marketing (35 per cent), people watching games on platforms such as Twitch (32 per cent) and the growth of emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, India and China (31 per cent).

You can read the full Mobile Games Developer Trends Survey in association with The Specialist Works right here by signing up and logging in to the Steel Media Business Network.


Head of Content

Craig Chapple is a freelance analyst, consultant and writer with specialist knowledge of the games industry. He has previously served as Senior Editor at PocketGamer.biz, as well as holding roles at Sensor Tower, Nintendo and Develop.