There's no doubt about it, mobile gaming continues to climb to incredible heights - both in active player numbers and revenue. With Microsoft insisting that even your toaster is an Xbox, the days of waiting to get home before enjoying your favorite titles on a console may well be behind us. But are tablets the best way to take advantage of this portable shift? Perhaps not. Handhelds are rapidly taking over the portable gaming space, shunting mobile thumb tappers out the way with full Triple-A releases right at your fingertips. But the best gaming tablets still have their place on the shelves - even if they've had to fight for it over the last few years.
These devices provide larger screens, more RAM, and better battery life than mainstream smartphones, but while mobile gaming continues to shoot for the moon, tablet sales are keeping their growth modest. A couple of years ago, this industry was in danger of slipping into decline. In February 2024, it was revealed that both Apple and Samsung experienced a shrink in their tablet shipments over the course of 2023 (IDC), with -29.3% decline for the former and -6.6% for the latter - mobile gaming revenues took a smaller -2.1% hit in the same period (Newzoo). Both sectors are back on the up, but mobile gaming is moving faster - by 2029, Statista expects the number of mobile gamers worldwide to reach 2.4bn, continuing an annual growth rate of 5.56% compared to the 2.82% tablet growth rate in the same period (Statista).
