Mobile esports is now a major chunk of the global esports market. What’s amazing about mobile esports is that it grew at an exponential pace that is way quicker than esports for PC gaming or console gaming. Here is our take on why exactly did that happen. 

How Popular Is Mobile Esports

It has not been long since competitive mobile gaming has been a thing, let alone mobile esports. It was only about five years ago that PUBG Mobile, which sparked the competitive mobile gaming scene, was launched, and only three years after that, in 2020, mobile gaming acquired a whopping 38.6 share of the global esports market. 

Humans Are Competitive

The main reason why mobile esports, or esports in general, is getting soo popular is that humans are competitive by nature and love to compete with each other. People love to compete, so as they try a competitive video game, most of them get hooked instantly and start getting better at it. What’s the best way to see who is the best at a particular game? Well, that would be getting the best ones to compete with each other in a tournament. It is precisely what starts an esports scene, which is also what started the mobile esports scene.  

Once an esports scene has begun, it starts growing like a snowball after that. When gamers see other players competing at a high level and see them doing some insane stuff in the game, it gets them even more excited about the game and might even push them into becoming pro esports players themselves. So, in short, the main reason why mobile esports is growing so fast is that humans, in general, are competitive and love to compete in large-scale tournaments or watch other players do it.

Mobiles Phones Are More Accessible

While it is true that esports only exist because humans are competitive, it still does not explain why mobile esports is growing so fast. One reason for the explosive growth of mobile esports and mobile gaming is that a mobile phone is much more accessible than a gaming PC. 

While not a lot of people these days might have a gaming PC, almost everyone will have a smartphone. It does not make a lot of sense to spend all that money on a gaming PC just so you can play video games. Since mobile phones are almost everywhere, it is more likely that people will get into mobile gaming, which leads to a growth in the mobile esports scene. 

Mobile Gaming Got A Head Start

The thing is, PC and console gaming had a lot of time to make adjustments and create a sustainable ecosystem for esports. Before mobile gaming became a thing, PC gaming and console gaming had already figured out what works and what won’t work in the esports scene.  

Also, there is not a lot of backlash against esports or gaming from people that are not a part of the gaming community that the esports scene had to deal with a couple of years ago. Almost everyone these days knows what it is. There was already a large market for it. So, the mobile esports scene practically had everything handed to it on a plate. 

Mobile Gaming Attracted People Outside Of The Gaming Community

One major advantage that mobile gaming had over PC gaming is that it managed to attract people that were not a part of the whole esports or gaming culture. People that might not have even heard about esports or making money from playing video games got into esports because of mobile gaming. 

Why is that, you may ask. Well, it is the same reason that we discussed above, which is accessibility. A gamer that knows what PC gaming is and what the esports scene is might already have a gaming PC, but the average person might not. However, what the average person might definitely have is a mobile phone. 

Southeast Asia’s Emerging Market

One thing that is immediately apparent about the mobile esports scene is that it is much more popular in the Southeast Asian part of the world. A huge chunk of the views for mobile esports come from the southeast Asian region, and it is also where the largest mobile esports events are taking place. 

While all the reasons we mentioned above have a lot to do with the exponential growth of mobile esports, the main reason why mobile esports is growing at such an explosive pace is that it found a market that was primed for the esports scene but did not have one. 

The thing is, the southeast Asian region mostly comprises countries that have emerging economies like Indonesia and India. People from these countries did not have access to the fastest internet connections and high-powered GPUs for the longest time, so most of them did not get a taste of esports or competitive gaming. 

As mobile phones started becoming more and more accessible and started to penetrate these countries, people from these countries started to take a look at competitive mobile games like PUBG mobile. Since these games are tried and tested in western markets, they were bound to be successful in markets where a large chunk of the population did not try gaming.

Final Thoughts

One thing is clear, mobile gaming is growing exponentially, and it will keep on growing at a rapid pace. The reasons for that include the accessibility of mobile phones and the targeting of competitive mobile video games in emerging economies like India and Indonesia. 

What this means is that mobile esports is not taking over PC gaming. Instead, it is developing its own ecosystem consisting of players that have never been a part of gaming culture. In other words, most of the audience in the mobile esports community consists of people that would never have bought a gaming PC.