The number of mobile games you can play today is simply amazing. According to PocketGamer, almost 500 new games are listed in app marketplaces on an average day, taking the number of active games in Apple’s App Store to over 760,000. And this number doesn’t cover the hardly negligible number of games you can run in a mobile browser: the 7 Sultans alone has over 130 of these in its 7 Sultans Mobile gaming portal. The pace at which it adds new games to its library is much slower. Almost three years have passed since you can play Treasure Palace online on your mobile. Perhaps this slower pace at which they are released, the games at the 7 Sultans are highly appreciated by their fans. Still, they are only fan favorites, with nowhere near the bang of the biggest game releases of a year.
In today’s list, you’ll find the “biggest” games released for mobile last year. Although it’s a bit too early in the year to see the official numbers, I think we’ll manage to single out the launches with the biggest bang last year.
3. Mobile Strike
Mobile Strike made a name for itself through its ad campaign featuring “The Governator”, Arnold Schwarzenegger as a commander. The campaign seems to have paid off: Epic War’s MMO strategy title has managed to outperform almost every other game in the App Store / Play Store.
2. Clash of Clans
Another game that’s been around for years but still manages to reach a top 3 spot in 2016 is Supercell’s Clash of Clans. Aside from building their own towns and gathering resources, Clash of Clans players also need to defend their towns from other clans and defeat surrounding villages to gain more gold, elixir, and dark elixir.
As its desktop counterparts with a similar topic, Clash of Clans managed to gather a devout fan base, allowing it to maintain its position as one of the top grossing games in 2016.
1. Game of War – Fire Age
Game of War – Fire Age maintains its position among the top grossing games on all mobile platforms since its launch in 2013. Machine Zone’s strategy title was among the most played games in 2016, too, managing to top ThinkGaming’s list of top grossing mobile games of the year.
The game is quite diverse, as it includes player vs. player and player vs. environment battles, along with city building missions – the game doesn’t have a defined end, which makes it a favorite for many strategy fans.
Honorable Mention: Pokémon GO
Niantic’s Pokémon-hunting title is perhaps the most discussed game ever released – and the most downloaded at one point, beating massively popular titles like Slither.io, Clash Royale, and even Candy Crush Saga. At its peak, Pokémon GO had 21 million daily active users in the US alone. Since then, the game’s popularity has dipped, most likely because of the worsening weather that doesn’t allow that many users to go outside and hunt rare monsters. Whether springtime will help it return to the top spot or not, it remains to be seen. Still, the fact remains: Pokémon GO was one of the most discussed, and fastest growing games of 2016.
