If you’re into mobile gaming as a player or you’re planning to join as a developer then you really need to stay up to date with what’s happening and what’s being released. There are only 24 hours in a day and even if you’d spend them all playing and searching for mobile games you’d still never be able to keep up. I’m supposed to be on top of the industry, know the new releases and experience them. It’s my job to do that and, just like you, the sheer amount of games overwhelms me. Thankfully, there are some amazing mobile gaming youtubers that make this endeavor much much easier and I’m here to tell you all about them.
Your Answer Upfront:
In this article we’re going to look at two different kinds of youtubers. We’re going to start with youtubers that can help you discover new amazing mobile games. They are youtubers who review and play mobile games, create lists based on genres and cover a wide range of games. After that I’m going to cover youtubers that talk about how mobile games are made. Game development for beginners and gamers alike. By the end of the article you should have grown your list of subscriptions a bit and have a pretty good idea on how to stay up to date with new mobile games.
Mobile Gaming Youtubers That Can Help You Discover New Games To Play
At this stage in the blog’s life I’m working hard to get most informational articles and guides out and to answer as many questions you guys might have about the mobile gaming industry. Whenever I stumble upon a game I think is worth covering I write a detailed article about it and post it in our review section. But there are so many good and interesting games out there that I cannot cover at this point in time due to lack of time and manpower. This is where these youtubers come in.
On their own, they create amazing content like reviews and previews of current and upcoming mobile games. Together? They cover a wide spectrum of mobile games that should scratch the gaming itch that’s been bothering you.
NimbleThor
Channel url: https://www.youtube.com/c/NimbleThor
One of the first people I came in contact with after I started this blog was NimbleThor. He reached out to me via Reddit to talk about my plans and see if we can work together. I was already aware of Mini Review, his Android app, from other gamers and game devs and I’m glad I got to meet him.
NimbleThor has great video production value and the amount of content he releases is just insane, especially when you think about just how much value he brings to mobile gamers on reddit communities like r/iosgaming and r/androidgaming. He’s got lists of games of various types, reviews and previews masterfully written to appease an audience that’s used to instant gratified content. In simple terms? He gets down to the point really fast. And with style.
Also check out MiniReview on Android! His team managed to cover a ton of games and it’s one of the main apps I use when I’m looking for something new to play on my Android tablets.
ECHO Gaming
Channel Url: https://www.youtube.com/c/EchoThruMe
I discovered ECHO Gaming’s content by accident. In my YouTube feed the above video started autoplaying and with the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of an Arcade Cabinet that seemed incredibly familiar.
It’s a Space Invaders Arcade Cabinet from Arcade1uP and I happen to own the very same cabinet in my home office. This immediately got me to check out his channel and content and I’m glad that I did.
Echo Gaming’s channel screams of personality and great production quality. The videos are entertaining and he brings his own dash of humor and opinions on the games he features. Most of his recent content related to mobile gaming is based on Top X lists like Top 10 RPG’s, Top 5 shooters but that’s not really a negative. From my own experience running this blog? A ton of people want that.
If you’re looking for news and top lists videos with good production quality look no further than Echo Gaming’s channel. (Actually, do look further, quite a few good mobile gaming youtubers on this list 🙂 ).
Pocket Gamer
Channel Url: https://www.youtube.com/c/PocketGamerVideo
Pocket Gamer is the granddaddy of Mobile Gaming news and videos. I remember the first time they covered one of my games as an indie developer. It was back in 2014 and I was working together with @ThomasNoppers on an advance wars inspired TBS for PC and Mobile. We announced the game and within a few hours @Chris Priestman found out about the game and covered in on Pocket Gamer.
The fact that PocketGamer was covering us meant the world to me. We were being acknowledged by one of the biggest sites in the industry and the coverage did really good for us. It was that coverage that actually helped me get a job working on Disney’s Frozen Free Fall.
Pocket Gamer is one of the, if not THE, biggest Mobile Gaming Authority in both text and video form. Their YouTube channel offers really in-depth reviews and previews of upcoming and current mobile games and their staff has more experience writing about mobile games than most other gaming websites out there put together.
Since they’re an authority in the field they sometimes get access to more exclusive news and previews straight from big developers, before anyone else, something smaller channels can’t compete with.
Gaming Mobile
Channel Url: https://www.youtube.com/c/GamingMobileGM
Sometimes I just want to see what a game is about without any commentary. When I’m working on a new mobile game I like to surround myself with multiple gameplay videos of a game type and I rely on Gaming Mobile’s channel for this goal. I’m watching a Superpower Squad video on the big 50″ TV. My iMac Pro’s screen is tuned to a Wild Rift video while the iPads are playing videos with other MOBAs. This allows me to get inspired and get ideas while also getting immersed in the genre of the game I have to design and prototype (for myself or my clients).
Gaming Mobile’s content is mostly gameplay videos with no commentary and I find myself enjoying this type of content fairly often. I get to see what the game is about and how it plays. And when I don’t know what to watch? I dive into a random video on his channel and just take a 5 minute breather to “experience” a new mobile game and decide if I want to try it out. Beats downloading and installing random games only to discover I don’t like them.
JCF – Jugando Con Fuerza
Channel Url: https://www.youtube.com/c/JugandoconFuerza/
Fuerza is a mobile gaming youtuber that started his YouTube channel covering Last Day On Earth, a survival game by Andrey Pryakhin/Kefir. I only recently discovered his YouTube channel thanks to YouTube’s algorithm lords that sent me his video titled “The Best Parents Play Video Games“.
In the first 2 minutes of that video he brought up growing up playing Civilization II and, just like in ECHO’s case, that got me to pay attention to the rest of his video. What I discovered is that his opinion videos are pretty similar to what I’m trying to do in written form here and his content is well researched.
Most of his recent content is composed out of well put together Top 10 videos on various categories, from Sports to Strategy games and everything in between. Production quality is good and on-par with most other creators in this list. I highly recommend checking out his channel if you’re in the market for some new mobile games to play!
Youtubers that talk about Mobile Game Design and The Mobile Gaming Industry
When someone asks me what my blog is about I usually laugh that it’s about making or playing video games. Honestly, the name is pretty broad. Does it stand for Playing the Best Smartphone Games? Or Making the Best Smartphone Games? Why not both? It’s a blog on the mobile gaming industry from the perspective of a Gamer and Developer. I know some of my readers are aspiring game developers so this section is dedicated to them. Here are some of my favorite youtubers that talk about the mobile gaming industry.
Ask Game Dev
Channel Url: https://www.youtube.com/c/AskGamedev
Ask Game Dev really rose to prominence within the reddit game dev circles a few years back and they make really high quality content targeting new game developers. Their entire channel is geared towards newcomers and their content is highly entertaining and streamlined. It’s not entirely mobile focused but they cover a lot of themes that go hand in hand with mobile game development.
Thomas Steward
Channel Url: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThomasStewartDev
Thomas is a new youtuber that talks about game development on his channel. At the point of writing this article he has 12 videos up and only about 1000 subscribers but the quality of his content is great and he covers subjects such as procedural generation and the life of a game developer.
I’m actually enjoying his content and I feel like it has enough depth and quirky humor to keep people interested in game development glued to their screens. His channel is something I’ve checked up on quite regularly throughout the past few weeks waiting for new content to drop and I feel that his approach is a welcomed breath of fresh air in the Game Development YouTube landscape.
Where To Next?
There are plenty of YouTube channels out there covering gaming and game development but I feel that these 7 are well geared towards this blog’s audience. Others have a mix of various topics that can be hit or miss.
If you want to learn more about mobile game development you can checkout my article series on Game Development on this blog. As for more mobile gaming content I have you covered on all areas, from Reviews to Resources that can help you find new amazing mobile games.
That being said, if you want to stick around, you can check out “How Do Free Mobile Games Make money“, “Why Do Mobile Games Have Fake Ads” and “Why Do Mobile Games Have In-App Purchases“. I write extensively about the mobile gaming industry – the same industry that removes classic retro games from the store because they have an ad filled, Pay2Win, Free2Play and micro transaction infested games. Oof I’m grumpy and tired of these practices.
There’s also a monster post (about 4000 words) that answers the question: “How Hard Is It To Make A Mobile Game“. It goes in-depth with actual examples on how Experience, Resources and Financials affect the difficulty of developing and releasing new mobile games!
If you like our content and want to stay up-to-date, you can subscribe via the mailing list widget on this page! Or give us a follow on twitter. Is there something else you’d want covered on our Best Smartphone Games blog? Let us know in a comment below.