Why Do We Prefer to Game on Our Smartphones?

in Entertainment

Source: Pixabay

Today, there must be only a few people left who don’t have a smartphone. Although our initial reason for having one was to keep in contact with others, we’re also becoming reliant on our phones as a source of information, practicalities such as paying the bills and keeping on top of our calendar appointments, as well as a source of endless entertainment options.

For many people, our phone has become a regular choice for a gaming platform, even though we could use a console or PC to play on. A UKie and Nesta report in September 2014 suggested that 47% of UK smartphone owners used phone apps to play games – more than those who use apps for online banking (40%) or reading the news (33%).

As well as the fact that you can get a great range of games on your phone, there are other reasons why they’ve become so popular as a gaming platform.

It’s a device that’s always with you

There’s nothing more portable than a smartphone and having it constantly to hand must influence the fact that we use it for so many aspects of our lives today. In fact, according to the 2016 Deloitte Global Mobile Consumer Survey, more than 40 percent of US consumers check their phones within five minutes of waking up.

Whenever you want to take a break from work or want an alternative to watching TV in the evening and decide to play, the sheer convenience of playing on a mobile adds to its appeal.

One area of gaming that’s really taken off on cell phones is casino gaming. Going to a bricks and mortar casino to play might be a bit of an undertaking, especially if you don’t happen to live near one, so would have prevented many people from ever playing casino.

Why Do We Prefer to Game on Our Smartphones? 3
Who needs to go to a casino when you can carry one in your pocket?

Osheas Casino” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by J.R.Ramos

With so many mobile casino games available you can now play them quite literally anywhere. And playing a few rounds of slots while you wait to meet friends, or while you’re sitting waiting for your train or plane connection is not only guaranteed to make the time pass much more quickly, it may land you some extra cash too! That’s the trick with most mobile games, in fact, including the genre we know as “casual games”: they’re made to be played in frequent short bursts rather than long sessions, like PC and platform games.

We’ve all become so used to controlling many of our financial transactions through our smartphones, so it follows that it’s also become really easy to deposit and withdraw money from wins on mobile slots such as Gonzo’s Quest or Valhalla using our mobile devices too. Whenever you enjoy a streak of good luck and you want to bank some of your profits, you can do so with a few taps on the screen at any time.

Juniper Research predicted that between 2013 and 2018 there would be an additional 100 million people using their mobile device to place a sports bet, play casino or buy a lottery ticket on their device, meaning that around 164 million people would be engaging in some kind of mobile wagering by 2018.

Why Do We Prefer to Game on Our Smartphones? 4Source: Pixabay

Variety is the spice of life

Of course, we all have our favourite gaming apps installed, whether we like casino games, shmup (shoot ‘em up) games like Sine Mora or puzzle games such as Tetris or Lumines.

It’s not just about fun for the sake of it, though. You can also install brain training apps like Lumosity and NeuroNation on your phone to give your brain a quick workout at any time. While many of the brain training apps offer a limited supply of free games every day, you can also pay to be a premium member and get personalised brain training programme via the apps. So, while you may be relaxing playing a game, it’s serving a double purpose as it’s keeping all those neurons connecting!

While playing on a console or PC might give you the advantage of a bigger screen and better visuals, the convenience and portability of playing on a phone is becoming hard to beat.

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