In case you haven’t heard, the revenues of mobile games are to overtake console games already in 2015. The gaming industry is facing a decisive shift of interest towards mobile games, which are expected to grow 51% in North America, 47% in Western Europe, and, above all, 86% in China this year. A real social phenomenon, mobile games have swiftly penetrated the contemporary pop culture and it seems that they’re here to stay. How did that happen? These 6 facts about mobile games explain it all.

1. Mobile games are portative and widely accessible

Unlike console games, mobile games are, well, mobile – since they're

portative, you can take them everywhere and play them anytime. And in this day and age, when smartphones are becoming lighter and tablets are getting smaller, being portative is also what makes games successful.

2. Mobile games are fun and relaxing

Most people play mobile games when they have 5 minutes of free time. When they need to unwind after a stressful day. When they want to have fun. When they want to socialize. In fact, there are many explanations why people play mobile games nowadays, but the main reason is that they are just so simply enjoyable. They’re easy, they’re amusing, and they make players to come back for more. At the end of the day, it all comes to the point of how much fun people can have with their phone or tablets.

3. Mobile games are educational

Mobile games might indeed be the best toy ever, but not only because they’re just so much fun to play. There are a large number of games on improving one’s knowledge in such an interactive way that schools would only dream of. Take Angry Birds, for example – it is a real brain booster as the gameplay entirely focuses on trajectory, momentum and gravitational laws that are yet taught in an extremely interactive manner. The same goes with games on vocabulary building (e.g. PowerVocab), history lessons (e.g. The Oregon Trail), logics and maths (e.g. Lazors or Math Evolve), etc. Fun games keep both kids and adults feeling inspired and excited, which is the best state of mind to absorb new knowledge and learn a new skill.

4. Mobile games improve brain’s well-being

Nowadays, challenging your brain just lies a mobile game away. According to Dr. Cynthia Green, “mobile-based games get us to focus, think fast, and think flexibly”. This makes games not just a ‘relaxator’, but also a ‘brain-developer, as they train human brain to be sharp, which, as a consequence, prevents mental decay. At least, that’s what researches at the University of Iowa say. According to their findings, playing games can delay the natural decline of cognitive skills up to seven years.

5. Mobile games make you more social

An interesting study carried out by Twitch has found that apparently gamers lead more socially active lives than non-gamers. It also appears that they are more educated, more optimistic, more conventionally successful, closer to their families, and, most importantly, more socially conscious. According to the research results, gamers are more engaged in society and are generally friendlier, since they value friendships more than non-gamers (57% vs. 35%).

6. Mobile games are cheap and often free

Last but not least, mobile games not only care about your brain, but also about your wallet. Most mobile games these days are either super cheap, free-to-play, or ‘freemium’, meaning that a game comes free but with optional in-app purchases (like belote.com). The price for most mobile games starts at a dollar, whereas a new traditional console game would usually cost around $50 or more. On top of that, mobile games don’t require you to buy a console, e.g. Xbox or PS4 that are worth several hundred dollars each, since nowadays everybody has a phone anyways. In fact, people are already outnumbered by mobile devices that grow faster than the human population. So when the gaming costs are reduced to the minimum, why not play?

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