by Stormtrooper on May 17, 2022
On a global scale, casual gaming is forecast to rake in over $18 billion in total revenues in 2022. It’s also projected to post a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.89%, with statista.com expecting casual gaming revenues to peak at $23.52 billion by 2026.
What are the main genres driving the popularity and volume of casual gaming? Below, we explore some of the genres that gaming developers heavily focus on in 2022 and beyond.
The hyper-casual gaming craze is one that’s here to stay. There are many reasons why people enjoy the hyper-casual genre. First and foremost, they offer genuine pick-up-and-play appeal. There are no rules or tutorials to read and master. You can simply load up the app on your smartphone and get cracking. Most hyper-casual games also have a sole game mechanic, making them easy to control.
Despite their relatively easy nature, they are highly attractive. According to visartech.com, Helix Jump from publishers Voodoo has enjoyed more than 100 million downloads across Google Play and the App Store. Rise Up is another that has generated a similar number of downloads in a short space of time, with the minimalistic visuals and simplistic gameplay to protect and preserve your balloon proving a significant pull.
Puzzle-based casual games are also high on the list in terms of revenues generated. In a similar vein to the hyper-casual market, puzzle games appeal to casual gamers because they are easy to play and offer a healthy dose of light-hearted entertainment. Market research suggests that puzzle games are particularly popular with female casual gamers, with three-quarters of word, brain and board puzzle games played by women in the US.
Wordle is one of the finest examples of how quickly puzzle games can rise to notoriety. The simple word puzzle game requires players to correctly guess a five-letter word in six attempts. It was recently acquired by nytimes.com, to become a part of its gaming portfolio.
Today’s video slots are so far removed from the kind of slot machines you might be familiar with dating back to the pre-2000s. With high-definition (HD) visuals and audio, they provide a more immersive, video game-style experience than ever before. Casual gamers like video slots as they can control the size of bets per spin and payline.
Today’s video slots are also highly secure and operate with the utmost integrity, underpinned by HTML5 technology. Most iGaming sites today offer HTTPS encryption which fully encrypts a player’s connection, safeguarding their sensitive data from the eyes of prying cyber-criminals. This means that there’s no need to acquire or activate antivirus software solely to play online casino games. At time2play.com, the bare minimum expected of real-money casinos is that they are licensed. So long as you choose to play with a state-licensed operator, you can be sure of a video slot game’s integrity and transparency, with all outcomes randomly generated and verified by third parties.
Arcade games are another genre famed for their playability. First coined in land-based arcades, now casual game developers can design and build arcade-style game mechanics for Android and iOS. The beauty of arcade mobile titles is that they require short play times, making them ideal for the early morning commute or a brief lunchtime gaming session.
The secret success of arcade games is their consistent challenges, such as the ones we at tentonhammer.com love in Lunia. They ramp up their difficulty levels and tests through the game progression. All of this helps build a sense of intrigue to encourage gamers to keep going.
Mobile device penetration continues to rise, with 6.648 billion active users worldwide today, according to bankmycell.com. This equates to more than four-fifths (83.72%) of the global population. With so many active users, mobile gaming is only going to become more influential as connectivity accelerates and mobile technology evolves in line with a mid-range desktop PC.