As we roll into Christmas, we asked some of mobilegamer.biz’s best-known readers what their personal game of the year was. Here’s what they said…
Mika Tammenkoski, Metacore CEO
I had trouble picking just one game of the year, so here are three games that have inspired me this year:
- When talking about games launched this year, you can’t bypass Monopoly Go. Fast growth, accessible for casual audiences, and massive revenue for a casual game. How they’ve managed to turn such an iconic board game into an equally captivating mobile game is a real puzzle for game-makers looking to repeat their success.
- Royal Match and their focus on product quality, player experience, and overall, super solid execution. I have to admit I’ve spent countless hours saving the king!
- Our friends at Space Ape with Chrome Valley Customs. Solid execution, but also innovating on product positioning. The game feels really fresh because of this.
Phylicia Koh, Play Ventures partner
Whiteout Survival is my personal favourite mobile game of the year. Great theme and core that takes inspiration from one of my fave PC titles Frostpunk (though far less brutal to grind through) and it’s adapted for short duration gameplay with a compelling meta that works for mobile.
Tom Martin, Space Ape general manager (Chrome Valley Customs)
It’s Monopoly Go for me. It carefully treads the line of being an effective free to play business that’s faithful to the spirit of the IP. Whenever I pick it up I can’t put it down.
Alexia Mandeville, Bodeville cofounder
If only Inscryption was on mobile! I’ve been consumed by that game this year. Mobile-wise, Magic Research really caught my eye and I’ve used it as inspiration for a lot of work this year. It’s got vast content, storylines, and worldbuilding. It feels really intentionally designed and full of effort, even with little artwork! The dev put a lot of work and time into it.
Kirill Gurskiy, GEM Capital managing director
Reflecting on the 2023 mobile gaming landscape shift, one simply cannot ignore the Monopoly Go phenomenon, which has made history as the biggest mobile game launch of the year. Soaring to the top of the charts, Scopely’s creation has surpassed an astonishing $1bn in revenue and 100m in downloads in just seven months.
As steep as its rising revenue curve, Monopoly Go is the Usain Bolt of the mobile games market, the fastest casual game to reach the sacred nine zeros milestone! Whether it’s the good old Milburn Pennybags, also known as Monopoly Man, the familiar gameplay, or the brilliant monetization strategy, Scopely definitely has its unique secret sauce that gets gamers hooked.
Susan Cummings, Petaverse Network CEO
My personal game of the year on mobile is Warcraft Rumble. As a Blizzard fangirl for decades (and a big fan of tower defence), I was very excited to discover this and it is steeped in nostalgia of the Warcraft canon. It’s been my ‘go to’ when I need to destress.
Will Luton, Village Studios cofounder
This year I probably spent fewer hours playing mobile games than ever in the last decade. There is a pervading sense that mobile gaming feels very stale right now.
I finally got round to playing Marvel Snap later in the year and had a lot of fun. But for me Chrome Valley Customs was the game I would put down as my mobile game of the year.
I really love car restoration shows and so this celebration of car culture (that isn’t racing) is really unique. I think this hit a really underserved demographic: ‘Casual dudes’. Most narrative-puzzle games are very female-coded. Of course, gender is a social construct, but something aimed at traditionally male pursuits in a casual presentation was very unique. And the car restoration mechanics felt fresh which managed to set it a part in a sea of Playrix-likes.
Laura Taranto, Big Fish senior product director and head of new games
Whiteout Survival (and its predecessor Frozen City), both by Century Games, were my games of the year. Idle mechanics, like merge mechanics, are super sticky but only short-term and need a strong aspirational goal and meta loop surrounding them to sustain long-term players.
Century Games did great work wrapping a clear goal – build up and save the camp – with layered idle upgrading mechanics into a resource management economy and game loop.
Alex Amancio, FunPlus SVP world-building and IP strategy
This year, two games stood out for me, both for very different reasons.
First, there’s Into the Breach. It isn’t new, but it’s a game I keep coming back to. I’m still in awe of its strategic depth and minimalist design philosophy – it’s accessible yet deep and extremely rewarding; it’s the kind of game that sets the bar for what can be achieved on mobile in terms of depth and design elegance.
The second also isn’t technically a new title, but it is new to mobile, and that is precisely what makes it so relevant. REV is tangible proof that the lines between traditional console gaming and mobile are blurring. Yes, the game looks fantastic and brings a level of narrative depth to mobile that was unthinkable not too long ago— but beyond that, it’s proof manifest that the lines between platforms are evaporating.
Nacho Monereo, Boost Capital Partners
A “new” mobile game that pops into my head is TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge. Awesome IP, nostalgic arcade gaming experience, and the option for online multiplayer is great. As a bonus, it is also available on consoles so I can play on both platforms.
