Evolution of Mobile Games as Social Networks
Raise your hand if you never considered yourself a gamer, but found yourself playing Among Us, Skribbl.io, etc. in the past year. With the pandemic forcing most social interaction online, many people took to games to socialize with each other. Mobile games especially grew in popularity because of their versatility and accessibility. With a simple download from the app store, people can enjoy relaxing gacha games to competitive battle royal situations. With the power of internet communities, they gain not only enjoyment of the game, but also an entire network of people with shared interests. In the exact same way that social media allows us to communicate with anyone on the same platform (within the platform limits), mobile games allow people to interact with a large community of users.
Among Us is the perfect example of a mobile game that took off during the pandemic that built up a wide-reaching social network of players. Friends that couldn’t see each other due to the pandemic or physical distance were more inclined to hop online and play games together because there was little else to do in terms of social interaction. In doing so, they often met and played with strangers in order to meet the game size quota. If people were lucky and clicked enough, there was the possibility of staying connected through external messaging applications and playing more games together. Even if this never happened to people, there were always communities on external platforms, such as reddit, discord, etc. where people could join and seek game partners. As Among Us started gaining traction, more and more people started playing, expanding the community and social network. People began producing Among Us content on platforms on YouTube and Twitch, expanding the Among Us network by introducing it to their own networks. The increase in players increasing Among Us content, and thus further increasing the playerbase, shows networking effects at play. The value of the game appreciated with its increase in popularity and players.
Reference: https://venturebeat.com/2020/12/13/how-the-pandemic-jump-started-mobile-gamings-social-evolution/