The Most Comprehensive Guide To iOS Gaming

Mobile Gaming and especially iOS gaming has changed a ton since its late 2000’s inception. We have blockbuster games, amazing hardware and a community of gamers so diverse they might as well be Star Wars races. Everyone and their grandmother is playing games on an iPhone or iPad. And the community of iOS gamers is going to increase with more and more newbies joining the ranks. Because of this, we have put together the ultimate, most comprehensive guide to iOS Gaming.

Here’s how the Gaming Guide is laid out:

We’re going to split this guide into multiple chapters and feel free to skip to the ones that interest you.

• We’re going to start by rounding up the hardware at out disposal. We’ll talk about the pros and cons of each, including older, yet extremely powerful iPhones and iPads. We’ll help you setup a budget to get you into iOS gaming at different tiers (Budget iOS gaming experience, Mid-Tier iOS gaming experience and I-can-afford-to-build-a-mansion-out-of-yachts experience, amongst others).

• Up next we’re looking at gaming. Free games, Paid Games, Games with Controller Support, Games with Subscriptions and all that. Basically? If you’re new to mobile gaming, I’ll be able to talk your ear off and teach you how to spot games that are really not worth investing time or money into them.

• There might even be a dash of information on retro gaming using an iPhone or iPad! We’re also covering game streaming and how it feels like.

And don’t worry! We DO NOT INCLUDE AFFILIATE LINKS! So this is our 100% unbiased, original, opinion that’s based on both my experience as a Game Designer/Developer for the mobile gaming industry as well as my experience as a mobile gamer!

The fact is – by the end of this article you’ll be ready and prepared to immerse yourself in the world of iOS gaming on the iPhone or iPad.

iOS Gaming Guide: The Hardware

When it comes to purchasing your first iOS device for gaming things are pretty easy. Even 5-6 year old iPhones and iPads are extremely powerful and able to play the most intensive games out there. I’m a game dev and I’ve routinely used an iPhone 8 for development even for really intensive 3D games with a ton of post processing and highly complex (a ton of polygons and materials) 3D models. What I’m trying to say is that unless your buying an obsolete, unsupported, iOS device (iPhone 2G -> iPhone 8) you’re good to go for most things.

But which device to get? Should it be an iPad or an iPhone?

iPhone or iPad for Gaming?

On this blog I have written two big, detailed, posts about iPhones and iPads when it comes to gaming. I’ll link you to them but I’ll also provide a comprehensive summary about the pro’s and con’s about gaming for both of them.

iPhone

• The first article is titled: Are iPhones Good For Gaming:

An iPhone is one of the very best smartphones to play games on. Even an older iPhone can run the most intensive modern games out there, as long as said iPhone supports the latest iOS operating system.

New Games tend to release first on iPhones and iPhones also tend to have more premium games releases than Android.

Due to the fact that iOS devices use similar chipsets, there are less performance variations from device to device and less device fragmentation. iPhones also benefit from around 7 years of support and OS updates.

Bacioiu Ciprian, from the article Are iPhones Good For Gaming

I also wrote a big article that explains why games run better on iOS than on Android. You can read it here but I’ll provide a summary here:

Games run better on iOS devices because of the inherent nature of the optimizations that are happening on the OS level. iOS has to support very little hardware compared to Android which means less bloat and instructions needed to be processed.

There are over 24.000 Android devices out there compared to a handful of iPhone devices. The performance difference between top tier, premium, Android devices and iPhones is negligible but not many people game on top tier Android Hardware.

Bacioiu Ciprian, Why Games run Better on iOS than on Android

In the article titled Are iPhones Good For Gaming I provided some really exhaustive benchmarks and comparisons between an older generation iPhone XR and the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra:

The Samsung S21 Ultra was released in January 2021 and currently sells for a price of around $1000 with discounts as low as $599. Still more expensive than the good old iPhone XR, which was released in 2018. 

So you can get a device that pretty comparable in terms of performance with a flagship-like Android phone for less money straight from Apple. Other sources can get you even better prices. You can buy an iPhone XR via Apple’s Certified Refurbished Program for $419, unlocked (and no, that’s not an affiliate link. We don’t make any money from linking you to Apple’s website).

The Samsung S21 Ultra and the S22 bench higher than the XR in multicore score, but in single core, the iPhone XR from 2018 kicks their butts while having a GPU performance pretty much on par. Now, in the article titled Why Games Perform Better on iOS I mentioned that even if the top tier Samsung phone and a top tier iOS phone had the exact same specs, performance and components, the iPhone would come out on top due to the fact that the Operating System (iOS) is much more heavily optimized for the hardware (aka it has less instructions to do for a smaller set of different components) when compared to Android, which has too do a ton of things to support 24.000 different devices.

Purchasing a 3-4-5 year old iPhone is going to get you really really good gaming performance (on par with the most powerful current generation Android devices) for a lower price than the latest Android hardware.

Let’s talk a bit about the iPad now!

iPad

• the iPad article I wrote that I’ll be quoting in this section is called: Are iPads Good For Gaming?

The iPad (even the cheapest one) is unrivalled in terms of gaming performance. It can run almost all mobile games out there and even some that are exclusive to it (Like Divinity: Original Sin 2).

In terms of CPU power, the base iPad (9th gen) can outperform 90% of mobile devices out there and has an amazing battery life.

And yes, you can use wireless gamepads with it and even play games with a mouse and keyboard.

Bacioiu Ciprian, Are iPads Good For Gaming?

In that article I’ve benchmarked a ton of top tier android devices against multiple iPads! Here’s the data that I got:

As you can see, even the entry level iPad that you can get for $299 performs better or on par with the top contenders from the Android gaming space. Spending a little bit more to get an iPad Air 4 (or 5 if you want a desktop level CPU) will get you a portable gaming machine like no other.

Should you purchase an iPad or an iPhone for mobile gaming?

This is the big question we’re here to answer! Let’s see in what cases an iPhone might be better than an iPad when it comes to mobile gaming.

If you want a device with a really big screen, desktop-class performance and amazing battery life for playing on the go or doing complex multi-monitor setups you should purchase an iPad for mobile gaming. If you want a pocket-sized experience for on-the-go portable gaming then get the iPhone. Note that the iPad offers even more games than the iPhone (Divinity Original Sin 2 for example) due to console and PC ports playing better on the bigger screen!

• Do you want a gaming device that fits in your pocket? Go for the iPhone.

• Do you want a big screen gaming device as powerful as a laptop with a bigger battery that you can do longer gaming sessions on? Go for the iPad.

• If you want best of both worlds? Get an iPad Mini! Especially the iPad Mini 6. It’s as powerful as an iPad Air or a top-tier iPhone while being more portable than an iPad.

Assuming you made your choice, let’s see what iPhone or iPad to get, based on your budget!

⚠️WE DO NOT USE AFFILIATE LINKS! When we link to something, we recommend it! NO ONE IS PAYING US FOR THOSE LINKS ⚠️

Which iPhone To Purchase For Gaming

So you want to purchase an iPhone for mobile gaming! Perfect, it’s an amazing device with top tier gaming performances. But which iPhone should you purchase based on your budget?

iPhone Gaming On A Budget

For the budget recommendation I’m going to assume you’re not looking for the best looking, newest iPhone. I’m also going to assume you don’t want to purchase second hand from Craigslist or eBay but you don’t want to pay new prices. This is where Apple Certified Refurbished comes in. You get the benefit of purchasing an almost new, tested and certified iPhone from by Apple themselves at an amazing price. Let’s talk about the budget option:

What iPhone to purchase for gaming with a $500 budget?

For iPhone gaming on a budget I recommend getting either a brand new or a certified refurbished iPhone SE. The SE rocks a modern iPhone processor that’s on par with the iPhone 12. There are two downsides to getting an iPhone SE:

• The iPhone SE is dated in terms of look and design but the performance of the devices is unrivalled.
• The battery is smaller and lasts less than on a regular iPhone 12 or 13. But when using it for gaming the difference is going to be of less than 30 minutes (I’m not comparing it with an iPhone Pro Max, but with a standard 11, 12 or 13).

To keep it short, if you don’t care about the iPhone’s look? The SE is an affordable, modern and powerful choice for iPhone gaming on a budget!

An iPhone SE, new, costs around $429 straight from Apple on their store. However, if you buy it certified refurbished for around $350 (if it’s available).

• If you go for the $429 brand new option, you will be left with $71 to purchase gaming accessories, premium games, or an Apple Arcade Subscription (more on Apple Arcade later in the article).
• If you go for a refurbished iPhone SE 2021 for $350 you’ll be left with $150 for premium games, gaming accessories, Apple Arcade and more.

This is how I would spend the money!

• $500 budget – iPhone SE for gaming

Let’s break down the expense list! You’ll be able to purchase a brand new iPhone SE for $429. With that purchase you’ll get your hands on a 3 month Apple Arcade subscription for free, giving you access to about 200 games that you can play for free, without any ads and in-app purchases.

After that purchase you’ll be left with about $71! You can purchase a Sony DualShock 4 or 5 controller/gamepad but, for your budget, I recommend you go for the Rotor Riot Lightning GamePad that Apple Themselves sell for about $50 brand new. It plays nicely with an iPhone SE and the wired connection reduces input lag.

The Rotor Riot Lightning GamePad is an amazing controller to pair with the iPhone AND the Free Apple Arcade subscription because a ton of the Apple Arcade Games support gamepad! You’ll be really close to feeling like you’re playing on an actual gaming handheld!

With the remaining $21 left at your disposal we’re going to purchase some premium games from the App Store as well as get Call of Duty Mobile for free. Grid Autosport is the king of iOS racing games. It’s as close as possible to an AAA Console Racing Experience. There’s also a free version, but I really recommend dropping the $9.99 for a proper AAA racing game!

Gun Fire Reborn is another purchase I recommend. It’s a first person Roguelike/RPG that looks and feels amazing and a proper twitchy game that wholeheartedly benefits from the pair gamepad.

And since you’re here to game you can get Call Of Duty Mobile for free and spend the remaining $4 on CoD In-App Purchases, like their limited time offers which grants you points, skins and other small little benefits.

What iPhone to purchase for gaming with a $350 budget?

• $350 budget – iPhone SE for gaming

It’s pretty similar to the previous list with the caveat that the entire budget goes on the certified refurbished SE purchase. You’re still going to get the 3 months free Apple Arcade subscription which gives you access to over 200 premium quality games.

There’s a free variant of Grid Autosport Racing that you can download, however, it features in-app purchases. But it will do for now! Together with Call Of Duty Mobile you’ll feel really really close to a console AAA gaming experience on your budget phone.

You’ll not get access to a gamepad like in the $500 budget but, there might be a way to have your iPhone AND gamepad, just not from official certified channels.

What iPhone to purchase on a $200 budget?

If you’re on a really tight budget you can get an iPhone SE from non-apple sources. Walmart, for example, has a refurbished SE for about $223. You can probably find one at around $199 with a little bit of luck or some coupons. It’s an option, but I really doubt they put as much care and attention in the refurbished process as Apple. But it is an option.

However, you can go for a much older iPhone that’s still supported. For example you can get an iPhone X 64gb for $200 at Walmart as well, give or take, depending on their offers. Or you can go even older and get an iPhone 8 (8+ if you’re lucky to find one) for around $150. The iPhone 8 packs a powerful punch and I still use one for some performance testing for my games even today. The only problem? It’s not going to get iOS 16+, but it will be supported by software and games for at least 2-4 years from now.

When you’re on a really limited budget, the iPhone 8 will do! And it’s gonna be just as powerful as (or more than) modern mid-tier Android offerings.

iPhone Gaming Setup for a $800 Budget

With an $800 budget you have a ton more space to play around with things. You can still get a refurbished iPhone 12 or 13 from Apple Certified Refurbished for $100-$200 off the full price. Heck, even a Pro or a Max can be obtained this way (they’re currently sitting at about $849 but you can watch the prices drop as the iPhone 14 arrives).

I suggest purchasing an iPhone 11 for about $549. It’s going to last you a long time and you get about $250 to spend on a GamePad, Battery Pack, Case and many other things to help you with gaming.

If not, you can go ahead and get an iPhone 12 or 13 for $699 and pretty much be on top of the performance leaderboard. You’ll easily squeeze more FPS than 90% of Android players out there.

My recommended setup for a $800 iPhone Budget is:

Just like with all previous iPhone budget lists, you get Apple Arcade for free so that’s about 200 games to enjoy with your shiny new iPhone 12 and DualSense (PS5) controller. Note that I’m recommending an iPhone 12 and not a 13 to help you save about $100 for a pretty similar and on-par performance. For gaming? You’re not going to notice any difference in performance.

Those $100 saved can go towards a decent stand and a DualSense PS5 controller that you can also use on your PC/Mac or Console via Bluetooth paring.

As for what games to get as a recommendation? Apple Arcade offers you hundreds of games for free and 90% of them have controller support.

I keep on recommending Grid Autosport Racing iOS as a premium purchase. However, with Apple Arcade you could try Gear.Club Stradale, which we reviewed. You can save ~$10 this way but Grid Autosport is the superior racing game.

iPhone Gaming For A Huge Budget

If your budget is over $800 at this point you don’t need a guide on what iPhone to get. You don’t need help with the purchase, you need to be pointed towards a direction to shop at. Go for the latest Pro or Pro Max 👈.

Get a DualSense 5 controller and a stand from the $800 budget recommendation. You might want to get a MagSafe battery pack to help charge throughout the day or when away from an outlet, just … don’t think you can use it while gaming. We actually reviewed the Apple MagSafe Battery Pack for the iPhone and it’s basically useless when gaming.

Which iPad To Purchase For Gaming?

There are 4 main types of iPads to choose from:

• You have the classic, base, iPad for budget gaming. It’s powerful, fast and a little bit dated in looks but, if you’re on a budget, it will do.
• You have the iPad Mini. More powerful than the base iPad with a smaller form factor. Think of it as the cross between an iPhone 13 Pro Max with an iPad Air 5 or Pro after a one night stand at Apple’s HQ.
• You have the iPad Air with the revamped aesthetics and the new M1 processor. A budget iPad Pro is, to be honest, powerful, but lacks Pro Motion (120hz variable display).
• You have the iPad Pro 11″ or 12.9″. Desktop class performance, huge screen and your wallet’s biggest nightmare.

iPad Gaming On A Budget

Let’s go over your options for purchasing and using an iPad when on a budget of $500 or less. Just like with the iPhone, we’ll have some solutions for even the tightest of budgets.

What iPad to purchase for gaming with a $500 budget?

On a tight budget you have a few options:

• Purchase a base iPad for $329
• Purchase an Apple Certified Refurnished iPad Air (4th Gen) for $450
• Purchase an Apple Certified iPad Air 3 (aka 3rd generation) for $410-ish

A few problems with these purchases:

• Base iPad is ugly and has a non-laminated display.
• The iPad Air 4th generation looks beautiful and is powerful, but doesn’t have the M1 processor and it’s just $80-$100 less than an iPad Air 5 with the same performance of an iPad Pro 11″.
• The old iPad Air (3rd Generation) is slower than the base iPad, but has a laminated display. And it’s more expensive even refurbished.

In this situation I can only recommend the base iPad for your budget. Maybe the 4th gen iPad Air if you really hate the looks of the base iPad. Performance wise? Both the base iPad and the iPad Air 4th generation rock a pretty solid offering.

Budget iPad Shopping List

People with a $500 are going to be way worse with an iPhone SE (2021) when compared to the budget iPad. In your case, you get an amazing DualSense 5 controller (the same one the PS5 ships with), the HoverBar Duo as an adjustable stand that you can clamp on it’s base or anywhere else, Grid Autosport Racing in full and the tablet-exclusive FTL: Faster Than Light!

The free 3 months Apple Arcade subscription brings you premium-level gaming that pair really well with your iPad, its big screen, stand and DualSense controller. Like I mentioned in my iPad vs Nintendo Switch article, you’ll really feel like your gaming on a proper console!

Of course, you don’t have to buy the Twelve South HoverBar Duo stand. There are way cheaper $10-$20 alternatives. However, just because you’re on a budget doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get something amazing. Just imagine lying in bed and clamping the iPad to the frame, holding it overhead.

With your DualSense Controller in hand you’d have a gaming setup I only ever dreamed of growing up.

It’s up to you which stand you want to get or if you even want to get one. It’s not a necessity for gaming on an iPad, but the experience with one is much better.

What if you have a much bigger budget? Should you go for the 12.9″ iPad Pro or get an 11″ Pro or Air?

iPad Pro 12.9″ vs iPad Pro 11″

The big question. I own a 11″ 2022 iPad Pro, an 10.9″ iPad Air 4 and a 10.9″ iPad Air 5 with the M1. And a 7th generation base iPad. I’ve only used a 12.9″ a few times, for testing my own games. It wasn’t mine and I never spent more than 8 hours at a time with one.

I think that the experience of playing games on a 12.9″ iPad Pro is just mind-boggling futuristic. It’s a bit out of this world, especially with a gamepad in hand. It feels way bigger than it is and I’m used to game on an 27″ iMac Pro. Yet the 12.9″ feels just as big and comfortable as a big screen and it’s really hard to explain.

The screen, especially on the latest model with M1 is unbeatable and the High Dynamic Range gives the “chef’s kiss” to the whole mix. In one sentence? The 12.9″ iPad Pro is just amazing. However, the 12.9″ iPad Pro is amazingly expensive, just as its accessories.

This is the reason why, for gaming at least, I would recommend getting an 11″ Air or 11″ Pro and just get a good $300-$400 monitor. With the latest iOS 16 on M1 Equipped iPads (like the 5th Generation Air or 11″ Pro) you get multi monitor support so if you’re gaming at a desk on an iPad? You’ve got this.

No need to get the 12″ Pro when you can buy a decent monitor.

If you can afford an iPad Pro 12.9″ + a decent stand for it + a good gamepad go for it. But just keep in mind the external monitor option.

$800 iPad Shopping List

Pretty similar to the previous budget list with a few things to note. I went for the iPad Air 5th Gen instead of the 11″ Pro. They use the same Desktop Classic Chip, the M1. The only thing the iPad Pro 11″ does better than an 5th Gen iPad Air is the fact that it has a Pro Motion Display (120hz) and two more speakers.

For the most part, you’re not gonna notice your on the fifth generation Air or an 11″ iPad Pro.

I’ve also added two “Designed For iPad” games like Divinity: Original Sin 2 and HyperLight Drifter. You’re going to be gaming so you might as well play one of the best iPad games out there. Ogh, and Faster Than Light, which is also a Big Screen exclusive game.

Like with all previous mentions, you also get access to 3 free months of Apple Arcade, which offers you hundreds of Premium Quality Games for your iPad and most of those game support a controller.

In terms of a really high iPad gaming budget, the sky’s the limit. If you’re over $1000 in your budget you can get the 11″ Pro or a refurbished 12.9″ Pro. Honestly, you can save some cash by buying the 2020 12.9″ or even the 2018 one. For gaming? You won’t notice the difference at all and you can get to enjoy the 120hz screen.

Let’s talk about gaming on the devices now.

iOS Gaming Guide: The Games and Game Services

Mobile gaming has evolved a ton since the early days. I should know, I was there from the beginning. I caught the first phones and their 1bit games. I was designing games at Gameloft when the iPhone 3G launched and I was there, front and center, when the entire industry went for In-App Purchases and advertising instead of premium releases.

Mobile gaming is a mix bag that offers quality for just about anyone. It really depends on what you would like to play and what you prefer. I’ll talk a bit about the different type of games (free, premium, ad-supported), I’ll talk a bit about Apple Arcade and then move over to streaming services like GeForce Now from nVidia and Xbox Cloud Gaming.

I’ll also say a few words on retro gaming for iOS devices and what you can do about it. Once all this is done, I’ll walk you through what games to play depending on where you’re coming from.

App Store Gaming – Free Games

The mobile gaming industry is known for their free games. No upfront cost, no complicated install process. Just open up your App Store, find something you like and click Download or Get. That’s it, one tap and the game is yours.

This streamlined approach to getting games is what set things in motion and caused the mobile gaming industry to diverge from the PC & console industry (for now, they’re all going to come back together in a chimeric mix of offerings, just you wait).

A lot of people asked me (and keep asking on this blog) how do free games make money. I wrote entire articles on the subject (which you can read at your leisure) but I’ll sum it up for you.

Free mobile games earn money by selling in-game content via in-app purchases or through displaying ads to the players. How much they earn depends on how much money they spend in user acquisition in order to bring players into their own game.

When releasing a free game on the market publishers and developers look at how expensive it is to bring users into their game and then analyze their own game and decide if it’s worth to continue development.

Bacioiu Ciprian, How Do Free Mobile Games Make Money

Free Games With Advertisements

The thing is – if the game uses ads it’s probably designed in such a way to keep you engaged for about a week at minimum. The levels or missions will be short, lasting from 30 to 200 seconds. At the end of a level or mission? You’ll get a reward and the option to DOUBLE YOUR REWARD by watching an advertisement.

If you lose the level or mission? Fear not, you can try again with double damage if you watch another ad. Or you’ll just get an ad because you lost and it’s the perfect time to get you to click on the ad for another game.

When you watch an ad the developer makes anywhere from $0.01 to $1, depending on where you’re from and what device you’re playing on (people from the US with an iPhone 13 Pro Max earn developers more money than people from India with a cheap Android phone. It’s a shitty situation but that’s the reality of our little industry).

There’s an entire article about developers making money from ads on the blog, if you would like to read it. It’s called “Why Do Free Games Make More Money Than Paid Games“.

What you need to remember is that if the game is free and it has ads it will:

• Show you an ad every 30 to 200 seconds, depending how long levels last.
• It will try to fill your need for gaming for 4 to 7 minutes at a time.
• The game will probably feature some kind of daily reward scheme to get you to come back to the game daily. Some feature 7 day rewards, some have them for up to a month.

If you’re looking for an extremely immersive experience that can engage you for hours, you’ll rarely find it in ad supported free mobile games. Don’t go looking for games marked FREE and expert Witcher 3 style engagement. Expect Flash game style games. Or arcade-like games.

I’m not saying free games are bad, far from it. And I’m single-handedly responsible for the existence of about 100 of those games on the market. I’m sorry but hey, I gotta earn some money.

Free Games With In-App Purchases

If a game is free and is not supported by ads, it probably has in-app purchases. Once again, I wrote a pretty big article called “Why Do Games Have In-App Purchases” that I’m going to sum up for this chapter.

Mobile Games use in-app purchases in order to establish a recurrent revenue source. Instead of having users pay $4.99 for a game upfront, they could instead obtain 10’s if not hundreds of dollars from the same user over the course of 1 week up to years of having the player as a customer.

Bacioiu Ciprian, Why Do Games Have In-App Purchases

In short, the mobile gaming industry successfully exploited the idea that people hate paying $15 up front for a game. And tricked some of them into paying hundreds of dollars over a long period of time (weeks, months, years) in $0.99 instalments.

• Lost a level? You can get 5 more moves for just $0.99 because you were so close to winning!
• Didn’t that player have a cool skin? You can rent it from us for $0.99 for 1 week OR buy it forever for just $19.99.
• Ogh, that hero you like? It has a 1 in 270.899 chance of being yours in this loot box. You can open up to 3 boxes for just $0.99 or 10 boxes for the awesome price of $4.99. Heroic and Legendary heroes are guaranteed in the Ultra Epic Mega Cool Loot Boxes where you can open 9 of those for just $49.99.

I can rant and go on for hours and hours on this subject. The cool part is that, as opposed to just ad driven/supported games, games with IAPs usually have a bit more meat on their bones. Not every time, but in most cases this is how it is.

You’ll find a mix of both free games with ads, IAPs or ads and IAPs. Sometimes, you’ll even find premium games ($0.99 upfront cost) with IAPs and that’s fine for some of them.

App Store Gaming – Premium Games

Premium games are a dying breed. Premium games or paid games or games with an up-front cost are rare to release nowadays. Mostly due to the fact that players have been taught that a game should be free. And with 80% of the mobile gaming market being users with no previous hardcore or mid core gaming experience, they don’t know how false this sentiment is.

What I mean by this is that modern mobile gaming players never spent time researching games like we used to. For us it was an entire ordeal to pay $60 for a game in the old days. We’d research it, we’d know how much content it had, how long it would last us. What secret characters can be unlocked. How big the manual was, etc.

In short, when we dropped $60 on a game we were sure that game would be amazing. We didn’t just outright buy it. Nowadays, it’s a 1 tap install. Why spend the time researching when you can just 1 tap and get the game. If it’s a free game and it’s bad? I’ll remove it.

If it’s a premium game and it’s bad? I’m not going to risk it. That’s pretty much how things are going.

There are some amazing premium games out there. Grid Autosport Racing is one of them. I recommended the game on 90% of the purchasing lists from the previous chapters. It’s amazing, you should get it. That game has less than 2000 ratings in total.

Slap And Run, a free, hyper casual, mobile game with 5% the amount of content, looks and polishes of GRID AutoSport? It has about 80k ratings. This should tell you all that it is to know about the gaming audience on mobile devices:

There are a ton of amazing premium games out there, many of them at the quality of last gen and current gen consoles. Seriously, mobile gaming and especially iOS gaming is completely off the rocker in terms of graphical fidelity and complexity. The only problem is that it’s hard to discover all the good games out there in the entire noise of ad driven free games.

This is part of the reason why I started this blog, to try and get the good games noticed. And if you’re looking for premium games I might just have a few articles to help you find them.

• The Most Comprehensive Guide to D&D Games on iOS!
• How to find new good iPhone games? 
• Here’s 5 Great Offline PREMIUM RPGs You Can Play on Your iPad!
• Amazing Mobile Gaming Youtubers You Should Follow To Find New Games!

We also have a Resources page that’s ever-growing with new content, tools, templates and suggestions. This article you’re reading right now? It’s part of the resources page. Expect more like it.

App Store Gaming – Apple Arcade Games

Apple is a smart cookie. They figured out that there are more people out there, like you and me, that want premium gaming experiences. They also figured out that 80% of the mobile gamers will never spend a dime on a premium game because “ThEy ShOulD bE FrE3e”.

So Apple pulled an Apple and released a service where you can play all their premium games without IAPs OR advertisements for free, in exchange for a small monthly fee of $4.99. They also bundled this service with their Apple One service that contains a ton of stuff (iCloud, Fitness, Apple TV, Apple News etc.).

And so Apple Arcade was born and it’s one of the best things to happen to iOS Gaming since the Bluetooth controller and the iPad Pro. There are hundreds of games that offer a console-like experience. I’m not joking. I wrote a big article showing you just how close the experience of gaming on an iPad is to a Switch, with it’s own advantages and disadvantages.

The article is called “Is Apple Arcade A Worthy Substitute To Nintendo Switch?“. My summary for the article is this:

An iOS Device + Apple Arcade cannot be a worthy substitute to the Nintendo Switch if you’re looking for a classic console gaming experience that leverages Nintendo titles such as Pokémon, Smash Brothers or Mario Kart titles due to the fact that the biggest Nintendo IP’s are not available on the iPad.

You can get a pretty-close gaming experience to a Nintendo Switch by using an iPad docked to a TV via a HDMI adapter or via Air Stream and a wireless controller.

Where the iPad + Apple Arcade shines is in the ability to play hundreds of games for a small price, the ability to share those games with up to 6 people at the same time and the fact that you can use it as a general purpose computer (browsing the web, emails, office work, homework) with the ability to add a keyboard and mouse.

Bacioiu Ciprian, Is Apple Arcade A Worthy Substitute To The Nintendo Switch

In short, I said if you’re expecting Switch titles on the iPad you can forget about it. But if you’re expecting Apple Arcade to come to the Switch you’ll be in the same situation.

An iPad + Apple Arcade is an amazing combo. 90% of the gaming I do nowadays is on an iPad + an Apple Arcade title. And I use the iPad on the stand with a controller. Or docked to the living room TV. Or docked to a 32″ monitor at my work office. Or docked to the 27″ iMac Pro at my home office. Or with a Bluetooth grip and gamepad.

iOS Gaming has really evolved and change the way I play games and it’s amazing to witness the entire thing unfold and progress.

Game Streaming Services for iPhones and iPads

I’ve only recently started to get into game streaming services like GeForce Now from nVidia. I paid for a 6 month subscription so I can play Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag on my iPhone and iPad. I’m working on my very own pirate-themed game under this blog’s brand and I needed some inspiration for the naval combat part.

All I can say about game streaming is that it works pretty well. The only caveat? Apple refuses to allow the apps themselves in the stores.

As such you’ll have to access the services in Safari as your web browser, go to the sharing menu and save the website as a Full Screen App on your desktop. It’s a bit of a workaround that actually works. Performance was good, even on 4G and I spent about 20 hours in Black Flag this way.

I highly recommend getting a controller and using game streaming services on the iPad. It works on the iPhone but the games look so small and the UI is filled with transparent buttons.

Services that I used to Stream Games To my iPhone or iPad

• GeForce Now – Free for 1 hour session, $9 for Premium! Note: You have to own the games on Steam, Ubisoft Connect or whatever EA’s calling their original service nowadays. There are some free games but most of them are demos.
• Xbox Cloud Gaming – You need an Xbox Game Pass for it. I don’t own an Xbox and I only have limited hands on experience with Xbox Cloud Gaming.
• Stadia – It’s still around and I frequently call it my biggest heartbreak. It’s working and it’s working great but there was so much potential in their presentation and… well, Google did nothing with it. Sad, very sad.
• Steam Link – Good ol’ Valve! If you have a Steam account, a beefy computer and you want to play you steam library on your iPad? Install their app, connect to it and boom! You have your very own cloud gaming center. No need to pay any subscription fees to stream your games!

Retro Gaming on iOS

This is another area I’m extremely familiar with. I’ve been playing retro games on my iPad for years now. I’m also a retro game developer and I released quite a handful of titles for the original Macintoshes, the C64, Nintendo DS and more.

So retro gaming is a thing that’s really close to my own heart. I’m happy to say that retro gaming is working quite nicely on iPhone’s and iPads however… you need a Apple Developer Account that costs about $100/year in order to be able to play any retro games.

This is because Apple does not allow emulators on the App Store. Developers like me can make their own emulators or build and port existing ones. I have a MacOS 7.5.6 and 8.1 install on my iPad Air, as well as a PSP and Gameboy Advance emulator running on my iPad Pro and Air.

I’ve detailed what retro games you can play on the iPad via the App Store and ways to get emulation working on the iPad in the article titled “Play Retro Games On The iPad“.

Where To Next?

I cover the mobile gaming industry and their shenanigans. Sometimes I teach you guys how to make games. Other times, I review games that I think people should know about (with the good and bad). But most of the time I do my best to try and explain why mobile games are the way they are and how we can fix this shoddy industry before PC & Consoles follow in it’s footsteps for good.

I believe that you might be interested in more articles on game monetisation. So 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“. 

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!

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