Nominate Today
Final hours to nominate for the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2024
Get your submissions for all 22 categories before midnight TONIGHT, Monday June 17th
Week That Was
Week in Views - Pre-reg record breakers, Apple's endless upgrades and out-of-order ads
The Pocketgamer.biz team pick their highlights from the headlines this week and deliver the stories behind the stories
Aiming High
Assassin's Creed Shadows on iOS is setting a new standard for mobile gaming
Apple aims to unify the gaming experience across iPhone, iPad, and Mac with a little help from some big name triple-A partners
New Launch Success
Supercell's Squad Busters team tell all on what's become their biggest launch yet
As the game generates over $10 million and surpasses 30 million downloads, its team members explain how they made it a hit
The Dawn Of Mobile
“Almost overnight we went from an extremely fragmented market to one where everyone was aiming for a single device”
Mobile Entertainment Magazine’s former editor and executive editor reflect on the beginnings of mobile
Five New Games
New release roundup: The best new mobile games from digital dancing to Olympic excitement
We highlight five new games that have broken cover and are all set to do big business
Podcast | Episode 16
Stop sexist UA ads, and is Netflix's games division falling off the rails? | Week in Mobile Games podcast
The PocketGamer.biz podcast team give you the state of play every week. Here's where to get it and and what's inside this week's episode 16...
Funding News
Game ads platform iion secures seed capital to fuel global expansion
The funds will expand iion's team, accelerate market penetration in the US and EU, and boost game publisher efforts in China
Keeping It Casual
SocialPeta's casual & puzzle games report for Q1 finds advertiser ratio rising
The new SocialPeta report on casual & puzzle games for Q1 2024 finds advertiser ratio risen by two percent year-on-year
Stylish Celebration
Zynga and Socialpoint celebrate Two Dots’ 10th anniversary with a fresh visual overhaul
The enduring puzzler turns 10 and anniversary events include treasure hunts and two Birthday Flips
Pre-registrations
Pre-registration is now open for Tilting Point's Avatar Legends: Realms Collide
Players can earn pre-registration goodies like speed-up items, legendary hero shards and other resources
Global Launch
Can Honor of Kings make it in the West? Meet the team going for global glory
We spoke with Honor of Kings chief designer, Dean Huang, head of localisation, Henry Li and its head of esports, Feng to find out why now is Honor of King's time to strike
Next At Netflix
Netflix VP of games Mike Verdu to move into new "game innovation" role
Netflix has released over 100 games since Mike Verdu joined in 2021
Podcast
AppLovin’s Daniel Tchernahovsky on hybrid monetisation and the hot gaming trends worth tracking | Podcast
The PocketGamer.biz podcast team and guests give you the state of play every week. Here's where to get it and what's inside this week's episode…
Tycoon Teams
Monopoly GO! launches first team-based multiplayer event in "uniquely competitive experience"
The new limited-time event is only available until June 16th
Looking Back
A brief history of the mobile games industry
We take a look back at the last decade and a half of mobile gaming, analysing the key trends that built the industry we have now, and what the future holds for the sector
Zenless Zenith
Zenless Zone Zero surpasses 40 million pre-registrations, beating Supercell's Squad Busters
HoYoverse’s next title has nearly doubled Honkai: Star Rail’s pre-registration numbers, and bettered Supercell's big launch
Approval Achieved
61 new overseas licence approvals in China bring the total to two-thirds of 2023
15 overseas licences were granted in May, including Mario, Pokémon, and Valorant. Now at two-thirds of 2023 with half the year to go
Advancing Ai
King’s head of AI/ML Luka Crnkovic-Friis: "The changes are immense, fundamental, and very hard to predict"
Luka Crnkovic-Friis’ work in AI has been utilised by Harvard, NASA, and now it's behind the scenes at King
Homa Hire
Homa appoints Scopely veteran Dan Adair as VP and general manager of hybridcasual
Dan Adair will greenlight hybridcasual projects and make key hires to build up the team
Wwdc 2024
What Apple's iOS 18 Game Mode means for your games
One of the more discreet roll outs at WWDC is iOS 18's attempt to get games looking better on iPhones than Android
Best Got Better
Welcome to the new-look PocketGamer.biz website!
Better looking, bigger images, easier discoverability, same great content
Supercell Surprise
"It wasn’t easy": Supercell's struggle to get Squad Busters included at Summer Game Fest
A mobile-only titles appearance at this year's show not only took its audience by surprise but required arm-twisting behind the scenes
New Offerings
My.Games launches new PC and console focused label Knights Peak Interactive
This brand new publishing arm has has already acquired games from five studios
Call To Action
It's time to stop sexist creatives in user acquisition - here's how
UA and marketing expert Matej Lančarič calls out the issue of sexist ads in the mobile games market and how this has got to stop
Real Deal
Voodoo snaps up photo-sharing app BeReal in €500m deal
Games publisher plans to invest in product strategy, growth and infrastructure
King Of Candy
King and Flexion partner to bring Candy Crush Saga to App Gallery and more alternative app stores
After record financials and a deal with Scopely, Flexion adds another major mobile win to its distribution portfolio
Winter Is Coming
Zynga’s Game of Thrones: Legends is open for pre-registrations with a July 25th release date
So soon after Star Wars: Hunters, Zynga is releasing another licenced game this summer
Getting Gaming
BBC Studios hires former Bossa Studios CCO Marina Mello as first global director, gaming and interactive
BBC Studios created a job listing for the role in February 2023, and has finally filled it 16 months later
A Taste Of The Top
The top games for downloads are shifting as new stars rise and puzzle games conquer Japan
Royal Match, Ludo King, Wood Nuts & Bolts Puzzle and others ascended the download charts in Q1 2024
Hot Topics
Mobile Mavens: Are today's everlasting, live ops games holding back new innovation?
Our industry experts weigh in on the power of long, and enduring games. Do endless liveops keep the market ticking? Or stop new devs from breaking through?
Apple Winner
Red Games Co's Brian Lovell on their Apple Design Award Win: “Inclusivity was a focus from the beginning"
The studio's CEO and founder shares more on Crayola Adventures and its award win for inclusivity
Ios18 At Wwdc
The key takeaway from Apple's AI-laden WWDC keynote? It's time to buy a new iPhone
As expected Apple went in hard on AI-powered features for iOS18, but it's the limited number of handsets that can use them that's surprising
Discoverability Updates
App Store developers can start nominating their games for featuring later this year
Apple also unveils new discoverability options including deep links and notifications of store promotions
Spatial Computing
Apple Vision Pro heading to UK, Germany, China, Japan and more
Headset will launch in select Asia countries on June 28th, and in the UK and other regions on July 12th
Everybody Loves Ai
Apple joins generative AI revolution with Apple Intelligence and ChatGPT support
New AI tools will be available in iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and MacOS Sequoia
Record Revenue
Royal Match takes a sweet lead over Candy Crush as Honkai: Star Rail zooms by Genshin Impact
Q1 welcomes a new round of heroes as Monopoly Go, Royal Match and Honor of Kings come out on top
Road To Helsinki
Devsisters’ Chris O’Kelly talks upselling IP to fans across multiple games without cannibalisation
17% of mid to high spenders spend on two Devsister games cumulatively
Latest Lawsuit
Google hit by £13.6 billion lawsuit over alleged "self-preferencing" and anticompetitive behaviour
Ad Tech Collective Action LLP is taking Google to court, though a date has yet to be set
Hunting For No. 1
Star Wars: Hunters ranked No. 1 for App Store game downloads in the US, UK and Canada on launch day
New arena shooter hit the top 100 top grossing chart in just one country on June 4th
Hypercasual Market
The state of the hypercasual genre in 2024
Sergey Martinkevich takes a closer look at how the hypercasual genre has performed over the first half of the year
Mobile No Show
The Xbox handheld doesn’t exist (but everyone wants it to)
Even Xbox’s own Phil Spencer wants a portable machine. But he’s not getting it. Yet…
App Stores
Aptoide unveils first non-Apple game store on iOS
Aptoide CEO Paulo Trezentos says it "represents a significant shift in the way users and developers interact with the iOS gaming ecosystem"
Big News
Squad Busters’ supercharged launch, Pokémon’s record revenue, and Star Wars: Hunters finally hits the target
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
Podcast | Episode 15
Star Wars: Hunters finally launches, the West's MOBA problem, and Xbox handheld rumours | Week in Mobile Games podcast
The PocketGamer.biz podcast team give you the state of play every week. Here's where to get it and and what's inside this week's episode 15...
Week That Was
Week in Views - The hunt for the new Star Wars game, Xbox goes handheld, and cats versus monsters…
The Pocketgamer.biz team pick their highlights from the headlines this week and deliver the stories behind the stories
Road To Helsinki
Metacore's Teppo Soininen: “Anybody who has put a game into soft launch knows there’s still plenty of space for f*ck ups.”
The Metaccore game lead underscores the importance of concept testing in his talk from Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2023
Race To The Top
Fingersoft CEO Jaakko Kylmäoja: Building the world's most downloaded racing games
Lego Hill Climb Adventures is out now, joining a series that's so far seen over two billion downloads. Here's the inside story on the latest Hill Climb and Fingersoft's plans for the future
Funding News
The Sandbox raises $20 million to empower creators in the open metaverse
A mobile version of the decentralized metaverse is on the way, expected to launch in 2025
Award-winning Recipe
Early Bird tickets to the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2024 are live
Enjoy a three-course meal in Cologne whilst celebrating the industry's finest on August 20th