The mobile esports industry has been experiencing enormous growth with the potential to bring esports to anyone carrying a smartphone.

PC and consoles have been the most obvious esports platforms over the last decade or so. Consumers typically associate professional gaming with high-end computers, the latest monitors, expensive gaming chairs, and any other number of peripherals or sponsors that help legitimize the experience. Over the last few years, however, the mobile esports industry has exploded. According to Newzoo, the mobile gaming industry will account for 51% of the global gaming market in 2018, and many big esports organizations and game developers have taken notice.

Endemic esports organizations go mobile

The introduction of MOBAs to the mobile landscape changed how a lot of people viewed competitive mobile gaming. Vainglory, in particular, turned a lot of heads, offering esports fans and players a familiar experience. As mental images of Candy Crush dissipated, the idea of a serious ecosystem for mobile esports began to grow.

This April, Immortals took a huge step into the mobile space by launching their “Immortals Mobile” division. Dedicated exclusively to mobile esports, Immortals Mobile is headed by industry veteran Jeff “SuiGeneris” Chau. At the time of this writing, Immortals is active in Arena of Valor and Clash Royale.

Earlier this month, international esports organization KSV rebranded to Gen.G – and acquired a Chinese Clash Royale roster (G.O) in the process. Gen.G’s leadership has more than 20 years of experience in mobile gaming. CEO Kevin Chou and COO Kent Wakeford founded Kabam, the mobile gaming company behind Marvel: Contest of Champions. Bringing their expertise to Supercell’s China Clash Royale League puts Gen.G in a good position to excel in the booming Chinese market.

“Gen.G’s experience working in China and with mobile games give us invaluable insight to the mobile esports market as we welcome team G.O to our organization in Supercell’s Clash Royale League,” said Wakeford in a press release. “Our highly-experienced executive team has a proven track record of success, providing unparalleled insights into best practices for our franchises that allow us to provide world-class amenities and support for fans, athletes and brands.”

Other established organizations competing in mobile esports include Team Liquid, Team SoloMid, 100 Thieves, Misfits, Team Dignitas, and NRG Esports. Like with other platforms, however, professional gaming and organized tournaments only represent a small part of mobile’s success.

More people are getting into mobile gaming – especially in China

In order to get a feel for how huge the mobile gaming and esports market is, you absolutely must look at China. Mobile gaming has been a priority for China since the beginning. Though it’s slowly catching up in other parts of the world, Chinese publishers and developers like Tencent have been making big money in the local market.

Tencent is just killing it, per their recent Q report, mobile has surged in growth w/ HoK seeing double digit YoY player growth #'s PUBG Mobile is insanely successful in China & outside 🇨🇳 estimated 50M DAU's total + monetization strategy isn't even close to its full potential https://t.co/BSBtsn4j8r — Jeff "SuiJeneris" Chau (@SJeneris) May 24, 2018

Technode recently broke down some of Tencent’s financial growth since the first quarter of 2017. According to Tencent’s Q1 report, they experienced a 48% revenue increase since Q1 2017 from games, ads, and cloud services that amounted to RMB 73.53 billion. 46% of their total revenue comes from online games, with the bulk coming from Arena of Valor (known as Honour of Kings in China). The report also indicated that Honour of Kings enjoyed double-digit daily active user growth on a Year-Over-Year (YoY) basis.

Another interesting note from Tencent is that PUBG Mobile has 50 million daily active users, with 40 million of those coming from China. Due to Chinese regulations, they have not yet been able to fully monetize the game. Their numbers would have likely been quite a bit larger had they been able to capitalize on that.

Finnish mobile game developer Critical Force has also noticed the rise in popularity of MOBA and shooter games for smartphones and tablets. Critical Ops, their flagship esports shooter, has reached over 38 million downloads with one million daily active users. I reached out to Critical Force to see if they could explain why mobile gaming has exploded in China.

“The growth of mobile esports in China, like many trends, attributes to the consumer attention,” says Kasperi Kivistö, Esports Manager for Critical Force. “Mobile games and consumer idea of mobile games have reached the status of PC games in China faster than in Western countries.”

“One point about the rapid growth of mobile esport in Asia is that a lot of people there either don’t have the money for consoles or PCs, or have the ability to have them,” says Juri Juskevits, Director of Esports and Community for Critical Force. “On the other hand, everyone has a mobile device and those are getting better every year.” Juskevits elaborated that living spaces in China are very small, so having a large PC tower for gaming wouldn’t be ideal.

On their end, Critical Force is helping their community build an esports following from the ground up. According to Kivistö, they’re also continuing to work on the Critical Ops Premier League, which has regional tournaments with cash prizes up for grabs. “Working together with our partners is a priority for us in order to find sustainable ways of growing the esports scene of Critical Ops.”

Take a look at the video below to get a sense of the passion that fuels Critical Ops and mobile esports.

As the culture of esports continues to develop, we will undoubtedly see interest continue to spread across platforms. Like Juskevits said, everyone has at least a phone these days. It only makes sense that quality competitive games and content are being created with mobile in mind.