2025 has finally reached its last chapter, and what an unpredictable ride it has been for mobile gaming. I just remember writing the Year in Review for last year, listing pointers, checking out numerous sources and my own write-ups, and then preparing everything for the big conclusion. Well, time does fly.
But now that the dust has settled and the calendar is ready to flip, it feels like the perfect moment to look back at everything this bustling year offered. From breakthrough releases to major shifts across studios and platforms, 2025 brought a flavour of excitement that only mobile gaming can deliver. So, let’s wrap it all up. Here’s my GamingonPhone’s Mobile Games Year in Review for 2025.
2025 was a Year of Heavy Hitters and Innovation
If 2024 delivered big releases, 2025 doubled down. The year kicked off with incredible momentum thanks to early launches and major updates from almost every genre. Big IP-based games, social survival titles, and RPGs led the race, while the evergreen casual genre kept proving that its grip on mobile players is as strong as ever.
We saw global launches that instantly caught fire, with the banking of some big franchises. The early standouts included DC: Dark Legion, bringing the massive DC universe to our screens alongside DC Worlds Collide.
Game of Thrones franchise made its entry with two launches. Game of Thrones: Kingsroad stepped into the arena, serving fans a polished kingdom-builder wrapped in the political drama the IP is known for. Game of Thrones: Dragonfire was next, which instead turned into a 4x strategy route.
Similarly, MARVEL Mystic Mayhem expanded the Marvel mobile ecosystem, focusing on chaotic, personality-driven spellcasting instead of the usual hero-brawler formula. If anyone assumed licensed games had run out of steam, these two titles happily proved otherwise.
The more tactical and shooter-focused crowd, however, spent their year talking about Delta Force, one of the most anticipated launches, finally stepping into players’ hands. For survival fans, we had Once Human makes its way with some spookie fun.
When talking about other genres, My Talking Tom Friends 2 arrived as a guaranteed chart-topper with its own cozy world, instantly pulling in younger audiences and nostalgic adults, while Archero 2 was also a strong sequel to the first part. Umamusume: Pretty Derby made its way into giving us a fun sports life-sim, while taking home multiple awards.
Games that we had to purchase this year were also very appealing, with some big game franchises also releasing new hits with Prince of Persia: Lost Crown, GRID: Legends, TABS Pocket Edition, Crashlands 2, Hitman: Absolution, and Football Manager 26 Mobile, to name a few. WWE made its comeback to mobile with the WWE 2K25: Netflix Edition.
Other amazing paid experiences were offered with the likes of Subnautica, which was a personal favourite, given how beautiful the game looked on mobile. Playdigious had a strong year with some amazing premium offerings: Chants of Sennaar, TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, Besiege, and the very recent launch of Planet of Lana.
While the AAA-style launches dominated headlines, 2025 had another defining theme: innovation. Small teams and creative studios pushed boundaries in ways only mobile can, delivering some of the most refreshing ideas this year, which makes way for more innovation.
TownsFolk, Miniatures: A Story Collection, and Parallel Experiment are some titles in the back of my head. Then came the wonderfully quirky releases like PBJ – The Musical, which leaned heavily into rhythm, while Super Farming Boy was a good mix of multiple genres. One game that truly deserved the headlines it made across both player reviews and gaming awards is Dredge.
One of the best indie titles on PC made its way onto mobile, in what was called a “very pricey game” for a small screen, which might have made people eat back their words. What seemed like a bold $25 asking price quickly proved its worth, with the experience feeling genuinely complete and well-suited for mobile.
Overall, game quality-wise, we had another good year, but surely, could it have been better? For sure. Maybe the lack of good racing games was seen, while action didn’t seem to be the popular genre for game makers. Interesting year, thanks to them premium titles stepping up their game.
A Year full of Controversies
Let’s be honest, 2025 wasn’t tame. At all.
Apple was once again at the center of multiple storms throughout the year. The DMA pressure continued, developer fees sparked debates, and third-party app store requirements caused friction across Europe and Japan.
Apple and Meta were fined up to $800 million under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, a landmark moment that further weakened Apple’s long-standing control over app distribution. This pressure intensified as Brazil ordered Apple to allow sideloading, while Epic Games and Apple once again clashed, resulting in Fortnite temporarily going offline on iOS in the US after a blocked submission before it was reverted back.
Government intervention reached games directly in several regions. The year started with the United States banning titles from MOONTON and Nuverse, including MLBB and Marvel Snap, citing national security concerns linked to ByteDance.
We even saw Russia cut access to Roblox over claims of extremist and LGBT content, while Hong Kong banned Reversed Front: Bonfire for allegedly promoting armed revolution. These incidents highlighted how geopolitical tensions are increasingly spilling into something as mobile gaming.
Another legal battle was with Light of Motiram at center stage, where Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) registered a complaint against Tencent Games, given the eerie similarity of their ambitious survival title with the Horizon series. This ended in mid-December, with Light of Motiram removed from stores and the two companies reaching a “confidential resolution”.
Beyond Apple, game-specific controversies popped up everywhere. Some studios faced backlash for monetization experiments, while others got caught in community disputes, poorly handled betas, or communication breakdowns.
One of them fair play practises came early in the year when the US Federal Trade Commission fined HoYoverse $20 million over Genshin Impact’s monetisation practices. These issues surfaced elsewhere, too, when Webzen, the publisher behind MU Archangel, was fined by South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission for deceptive probability disclosures.
These incidents also underscored broader concerns within the industry, as we also got a survey in Japan that revealed one in five young gamers faced financial difficulties due to gacha spending, reigniting debates around consumer protection in live-service games.
Platforms, Power, and the Battle for Distribution
If there was one underlying theme in 2025, it was the slow but visible erosion of platform monopolies. Apple remained at the center of that shift, but this time, the walls showed cracks.
The announcement of a dedicated Apple Games app, alongside full-screen browser gaming support on Safari, signalled a quiet change in strategy. Instead of resisting change outright, Apple appeared to be reorganising how games were presented within its ecosystem. That shift became even more apparent as Amazon confirmed the shutdown of its Android Appstore, ending a decade-long attempt to challenge Google Play.
Meanwhile, Epic Games doubled down on mobile by launching a Free Games Program on its mobile storefront, borrowing directly from its PC success playbook. On the Android side, Google brought all Android games to PC through Google Play Games, further blurring the line between mobile and desktop gaming.
Microsoft finally made an effective move by adding a proper Store experience to the Xbox mobile app, allowing browsing and wishlisting, small on the surface, but symbolic of Xbox’s long-term mobile ambitions. We also saw Xiaomi’s WinPlay turned heads by letting users run Windows games on Android tablets, hinting at a future where hardware flexibility becomes a major competitive advantage.
The magic that is Mobile Gaming Business
This year saw some landmark deals that were a major new defining moment for a long time, if I were to summarise.
The biggest shockwave came when Electronic Arts went private in a historic $55 billion acquisition deal, fundamentally reshaping one of the industry’s largest publishers. Almost immediately, speculation followed about EA’s mobile roadmap, especially after years of mixed results in the space.
Even bigger headlines followed when Netflix announced its $82.7 billion acquisition of Warner Bros., a deal that instantly reframed Netflix Games’ long-term ambitions. What began as a quiet mobile push suddenly looked like a full-scale entertainment ecosystem play. However, they are currently in a bidding war with Paramount Studios.
We also saw other deals happen, with Niantic moving to a $3.5 billion deal with Scopely to sell its games division, while KRAFTON acquired a $14 million controlling stake in Nautilus Mobile. Tencent continued to pull strings behind the scenes, with its investment in Ubisoft sparking fresh discussion about how deeply mobile will factor into Ubisoft’s future.
Not every shift involved buying studios. ByteDance transferred US publishing rights for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB), Mobile Legends: Adventure (MLA), and Marvel Snap to Skystone, avoiding a sale while still reshaping its regional footprint. Meanwhile, CD Projekt Red partnered with Scopely to bring one of its IPs to mobile.
Small screen games bidding goodbyes
This section always features a list of games, and this year was no exception. Mobile game shutdowns happen every year, and this time we saw losses across both ends of the spectrum: some were long-running experiences, while others had only just begun to bloom before meeting an untimely end.
Several well-known names bid farewell this year. Asphalt Nitro was a big miss, as Gameloft delisted the title after a decade-long run. King’s Raid, which ran for nearly a decade, bid goodbye. Guitar Girl concluded its emotional five-year run, The Tale of Food shut down after carving a niche following, and rhythm games like Beatstar and Country Star announced their final days.
Among the quick shutdowns, we have Eversoul, Black Beacon, and Atelier Resleriana, all of which became pretty popular but ran for close to a year or a little more. Soul Tide made a sad fade because of its licensing coming to an end.
Anime-based titles were hit especially hard. Black Clover M: Rise of the Wizard King, DanMachi BATTLE CHRONICLE, Tower of God: Great Journey, Gran Saga, My Hero Academia: The Strongest, and Re:ZERO – Witch’s re:surrection all announced shutdowns despite being strong and established fanbases.
Games like Tokyo Revengers: Last Mission, Digimon: Source Code, and Ride Kamens never managed to secure a long-term footing, with some failing even to reach a proper global release before operations were pulled. When you look at three, all three are successful media franchises, and it could have worked if developers had given it a try.
Live-service and multiplayer-focused titles also faced difficult exits. Zynga’s Star Wars: Hunters confirmed its shutdown later in the year, while TRIBE NINE struggled to maintain momentum just three months after launch. Tencent Games‘ Tarisland, once positioned as a potential long-term MMORPG contender, shut down barely a year after release.
Even established titles weren’t immune. Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft Rumble didn’t fully shut down but ended major content updates, while Activision’s COD Warzone Mobile was also deemed a flop as it was delisted from app stores, with online support continuing in a limited capacity.
Another shock was Electronic Arts‘ The Sims Mobile, which announced its closure after seven years of service. Pokémon Masters EX began shutting down operations in select Southeast Asian regions, while Squad Busters, one of Supercell’s most ambitious experiments, confirmed its eventual shutdown despite a strong initial push.
EA also gave us another shock in Real Racing 3, with the 12-year-old racing experience bidding goodbye. While we already had a lackluster year when it comes to racing games, one of the best titles getting sunsetted surely leaves behind a scar.
Square Enix had another difficult year, cancelling Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link after a prolonged development cycle and shutting down War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius and FINAL FANTASY BRAVE EXVIUS in Japan.
Another year of job cuts
Of course, industry-wide layoffs and restructuring continued, which was painful to watch. Several beloved community managers, developers, and artists shared stories of sudden departures, reminding everyone how volatile this industry can be behind the scenes.
Major names like Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Square Enix, Unity, and Netflix Games all found themselves making difficult decisions, while several mid-sized and independent studios were either downsized or shut down completely.
At the studio level, the impact was far more personal. Long-established teams such as Turn 10 Studios and Crytek were forced to step back from major projects, while others like Romero Games, Phoenix Labs, Midnight Society, Studio Fizbin, and Mountaintop saw entire creative visions cut short.
In several cases, studios shut their doors not because of creative failure, but because publisher backing disappeared or internal priorities shifted elsewhere. Games that had taken years to build were cancelled in weeks, leaving developers with little to show publicly for their efforts.
Mobile and live-service teams were not spared either. King, Playtika, Moon Active, Netmarble subsidiaries, and Machine Zone scaled back development groups as the market cooled and user acquisition costs continued to rise.
Even successful games were no longer guaranteed safety if they did not align with long-term business goals. The overall industry surely suffered a lot when it came to job cuts, a trend that was followed in the previous year as well.
2026 is a new start with better ideas
As 2025 comes to a close, it feels less like an ending and more like a refresh. I always say that the number in the year changes, and the rest of them remain intact, but going into 2026, I feel some good changes are coming our way.
Even in job cuts, there are some good bits that we can take away. I read a report that suggested that layoffs in 2025, while still significant, were lower than the numbers seen in 2024. It’s not something to celebrate for sure, but it does hint at something stable, and I hope 2026 will be an improvement.
What excites me more is where ideas are heading. Over the past year, we saw developers experiment outside their comfort zone. Browser gaming took real steps forward thanks to Apple, mobile and PC ecosystems blended further, and installation-free experiences quietly gained traction.
Apple opening up full-screen browser gaming, Google pushing Android titles to PC, and platforms like Reddit experimenting with built-in games all point toward a future where how we access games matters as much as the games themselves.
Technology will obviously play its part. AI tools are already in the mix, and there are also concerns about them replacing the human workforce, but the more interesting development is how studios are learning where not to use them and how to get the best out of them.
Also, I remember being excited last time with AAA games coming to our screens, since mobile as a platform has advanced a long way, and it has been made possible with some recent releases. Antutu benchmarks are seeing record-breaking numbers with every new flagship, while midrange phones pack a punch to run the heavy hitters, too.
Performance-first engines and better optimisation are quietly improving player experiences without being marketed as features. Add to that advancements in cloud gaming, geospatial storytelling, and cross-platform play, and 2026 feels like a solid year for us.
GamingonPhone’s small steps to the big mobile gaming dream
As a media house for mobile gaming, we at the GamingonPhone team are also trying our best to make the industry connected, while celebrating the best of the industry. GamingonPhone Conference (GPC) Online, the premier B2B gaming event, continued with its 3rd edition, helped in having a space that brought in opportunities to make more connections.
With our annual awards show, GamingonPhone Awards, we managed to take it to a level above. This time, we had our very first in-person event on October 17th in Bangkok, Thailand, awarding winners across 30 categories across both B2C and B2B segments. GamingonPhoneBiz.com was also a humble start at covering the mobile gaming business.
If there’s one thing I want from 2026, it is fewer rushed launches. More games that know exactly what they want to be and not just released to capitalise on the hype. After a year that tested the industry emotionally and creatively, the hope is simple: better ideas, built at a human pace, for players who just want games that feel worth their time.
Phew, time does fly fast. Hopefully, as the calendar turns, our wings spread a little wider, our ideas fly a little higher, and the industry finds strength in every feather along the way. Because we, as gamers, always know how to click the “play again” button and make sure to complete our missions and level up. Yes, my motto for 2026: LEVEL UP!
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