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Best FC Mobile 2nd Anniversary players tier list
Game Reviews

Best FC Mobile 2nd Anniversary players tier list

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The 2nd Anniversary event in FC Mobile introduced special cards for icons and current superstars in the Gallery, which you can get by exchanging your shards.

As of writing on Oct. 7, there are two special teams of promo cards. Two more will be added in the next couple of weeks. The highest price for a card is 1500 shards, while the lowest is 200. As with any event, you can’t obtain them all, and this guide will narrow down the best choices as per your budget.

Best FC Mobile 2nd Anniversary players tier list

I have used four tiers to separate the cards. B and C tiers have cards that are 110 and 111-rated, and their stats are inferior compared to 112 and 113-rated cards. However, some of them are great budget choices if you don’t have lots of shards. Also, a few exceptions might be 111-rated, but have been placed higher.

  • S-tier cards are the absolute best items when you consider their stats, alternative positions, and shard costs.
  • A-tier cards are great cards, but they might be limited in alternate positions, or their shard costs more than they should.
  • B-tier cards are average choices that have decent stats, but they should be considered only if you have a low budget.
  • C-tier cards are items that you should stay away from (unless you have extra shards that have no other use).

S-tier

  • Jude Bellingham: Great card, great stats. He is also one of the cheaper 113-rated items, available for 1250 shards. He can play well as both a CAM and a CM.
  • Ronaldinho: While the cost is slightly higher, every Ronaldinho card has always been a top-tier choice. His dribbling and finesse will help you beat opponents and score from absurd angles.
  • Patrick Vieira: One of the most versatile midfielders in the current meta who can shine as a CM and a CDM. Unlike Lucio in the next tier, his cost of 1250 shards is perfect.
  • Toni Kroos: While I feel that his in-game stats and work-rates can be better, the card being available for 1000 shards makes him an absolute bargain.
  • Emmanuel Petit: Petit’s in-game stats and animations make him the best CDM in the current game (Vieira comes close), and the 112-rated item is only going to cost you 800 shards.
  • Cha Bum Kun: The South Korean might be the best RW currently available in the Shards Exchange, and he offers 5* Weak Foot as a bonus.
  • Lilian Thuram: If you have 1250 shards and need an RB, blindly choose the Frenchman. He will remain the best RB for a long time, and one of the safest choices in FC Mobile.
  • Marco Van Basten: He is pacy and strong, has a 5* weak foot, and costs 1250 shards. He is one of the best strikers in the current meta and will remain so.
  • Carles Puyol: While he isn’t top-tier meta in terms of stats, the 112-rated card costs only 650 shards, and it’s incredible value.
  • Vanja Milinkovic-Savic: Unless we get another CB in the 2nd Anniversary event, Vanja at 300 shards is the best goalkeeper you can pick.

A-tier

  • Lucio: A great CB item, but not ideal for those who like having taller defenders. His shard cost at 1500 should have been lower.
  • Theo Hernandez: While this Theo Hernandez card is a straight upgrade over his Inferno version, the cost of 1200 shards is way too high. However, he is pretty much the best offensive LB along with Ballon d’Or Roberto Carlos.
  • Jamal Musiala: While the German wonderkid is priced right at 800 shards, his Physicality stats and 4* weak foot are a bummer.
  • Kyle Walker: There’s a definite dearth of good RBs in this game, and Walker could be a great choice. Despite being 111 OVR, he has the pace and stats to shine in the meta. His price at 800 shards is objectionable, though.
  • Diego Maradona: Maradona might be an extremely strong meta choice, but his shard cost (1500 shards) and low physicality put him in the A-tier.
  • Zlatan Ibrahimovic: If Van Basten wasn’t a part of the 2nd Anniversary event, Zlatan would be top tier. He’s an excellent choice for most, but Van Basten will be better.
  • Samuel Eto’o: For an RW who costs 1500 shards, he has 4* weak foot, which is a limitation in the RW position.
  • Kevin De Bruyne: An elite CM but lacks slightly in defensive stats.
  • Luis Diaz: The new Diaz card has extraordinary agility, great pace, and costs only 800 shards.
  • Federico Dimarco: If you can’t afford Hernandez and need to upgrade the LB, Dimarco is a great, cheap option.
  • Jonathan Tah: This budget-CB is 6’5″ and has stellar defensive stats. He can be a great CB choice coming in at only 450 shards.

B-tier

  • Alisson: If I ignore the overall rating, there are better goalkeeping options over Alisson, and he is priced at 1000 shards, which makes him overpriced in my book.
  • Joe Cole: Good card and great in-game stats, and the 300 shard cost is just the right amount.
  • Freddiie Ljungberg: A good budget option if you need a new RM.
  • Viktor Gyokeres: While Gyokeres has always been meta, this card feels clunky to use. If you still need a striker at 800 shards, this should be your pick.
  • Socrates: I have loved to use many Socrates items over the years, but this version at 1000 shards is way overpriced.
  • Victor Osimhen: Quick pace and decent shooting, but a 111-rated card at 600 shards is not what I would call decent value.
  • Kenan Yildiz: Good pace, 5* weak foot, and well-priced at 450 shards.

C-tier

  • Jack Grealish: While I like his in-game stats, the 3* weak foot and 450 shard cost just reduce his potential value.
  • Federico Chiesa: If you need a new RM, it’s better to go with Ljungberg (although the Swede costs 150 sharrds more).
  • Joao Palhinha: Good CDM if you need a reliable option at 200 shards.
  • Olivier Giroud: Too slow for the meta and poor work-rate.
  • Thiago Almada: Quick but behind the power curve.
  • Beukema: Extremely weak stats and too short of a height for a CB.
  • Yann Sommer: Same price as Vanja, but one OVR less and inferior stats.

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Best Cellphone Plans 2025 | Compare Top Mobile Phone Plans and Carriers
Gaming Gear

Best Cellphone Plans 2025 | Compare Top Mobile Phone Plans and Carriers

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“5G” is an umbrella term that encompasses the current fifth-generation cellular wireless network technologies. All the major carriers and phones support 5G connections, which can offer faster data speeds than older technologies such as 4G LTE or 3G.

Essentially there are three types of 5G: Millimeter-wave (mmWave), which can be fast but has limited range; low-band 5G, which has slower speeds but works on a broader range; and midband, which is a balance between the two that’s faster than low-band but also covers a larger range than millimeter-wave. Midband also incorporates C-band, a batch of spectrum auctioned off by the Federal Communications Commission in 2021.

Your phone’s 5G connection depends on which type blankets the area you’re in, as well as other factors, such as population density and infrastructure. For instance, mmWave is super fast, but its signals can be thwarted by buildings, glass, leaves, or by being inside of a structure.

When your device is connected to a 5G network, it can show up as several variations such as 5G, 5G Plus, 5G UW or others, depending on the carrier. Here’s a list of icons you see at the top of your phone for the major services:

AT&T: 5GE (which isn’t actually 5G, but rather a sly marketing name for 4G LTE), 5G (low band), 5G Plus (mmWave, midband)

Verizon: 5G (low band, also called “Nationwide 5G”), 5G UW/5G UWB (midband and mmWave, also called “5G Ultra Wideband”)

T-Mobile: 5G (low band), 5G UC (midband and mmWave, also called “Ultra Capacity 5G”)

There’s also 5G Reduced Capacity (5G RedCap), which is a lower-power, smaller-capacity branch of 5G used by devices such as smartwatches and portable health devices; the Apple Watch Ultra 3, for example, connects via 5G RedCap.

Just around the corner is 5G Advanced, promising much faster speeds due to carrier aggregation, or combining multiple spectrums.



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Nintendo’s new Fire Emblem mobile game has an Among Us-style twist
Gaming Gear

Nintendo’s new Fire Emblem mobile game has an Among Us-style twist

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Nintendo is releasing a new Fire Emblem mobile game, Fire Emblem Shadows. The company says the game is a spinoff of the series and “introduces a new style of battles featuring role-playing and social deduction.”

The company’s description of the game indicates that Shadows will have Among Us-like elements of treachery: 

One of the three allies participating in each battle is secretly a treacherous disciple of shadow. Players choose to take on the role of either a disciple of light, aiming to find their way through the labyrinth, or a disciple of shadow.

After the initial battle, players vote to determine who they believe is the treacherous disciple of shadow. The outcome of the vote affects whether the next battle is more favorable or more challenging. Whether the disciples of light can correctly discover the traitor—or the disciple of shadow can successfully deceive the others—holds the key to how the next battle unfolds.

Nintendo says Fire Emblem Shadows is available for iOS and Android, and while it’s a free-to-play app, it will have optional in-app purchases.

The company’s other mobile take on Fire Emblem, the gacha-style Fire Emblem Heroes, quickly turned into a big and lucrative hit after its 2017 release, and the game still receives regular updates and new heroes. Nintendo also recently announced a new entry in the series for Switch 2, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave. 



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Product Reviews

Proton Mail’s redesigned mobile app is built for speed

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If you use Proton Mail on your phone, things are about to pick up. The company is rolling out new apps for Android and iOS. The updated mobile applications are rebuilt from the ground up with a “cleaner, faster and more private experience.” Proton first announced in April that it was working on the revamp.

The company says the new Proton Mail lets you scroll, archive and reply twice as fast as before. It also now supports an offline mode, allowing you to read, write and organize messages while away from the internet. A redesigned interface aims for simpler navigation, with areas like the composer button now sitting within easier reach.

The iOS and Android apps, while still native to their respective platforms, now share a common codebase. Proton says they share 80 percent of their code. This should enable faster development and near-simultaneous future updates.

Product lead Anant Vijay Singh credited the update to Proton’s community and business model. “The new Proton Mail mobile apps reflect this feedback and show what is possible if you build an email app without the constraints imposed by trying to monetize user data, allowing for a cleaner, faster, and more private experience,” he said.

Proton has had a full plate lately. The company is working on an upcoming overhaul of Proton Calendar with similar user experience upgrades. This summer, it even joined the chatbot fracas with Lumo, which it believes can carve a niche as a more ethical AI assistant.

The Proton Mail updates begin rolling out today in the App Store and Play Store.



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Gaming Gear

Qualcomm’s new flagship mobile platform is the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

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Qualcomm has launched the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which the company claims is the “world’s faster mobile system-on-a-chip.” It was designed for flagship devices for manufacturers and smartphone brands that don’t make their own mobile platforms, with the first devices equipped with the SoC launching in the coming days. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is powered by the company’s third-generation Oryon CPU, which Qualcomm says “improves performance by 20 percent and CPU power efficiency by 35 percent.” Overall, the company is claiming that the platform has a 16 percent lower power draw, making it more efficient and enabling longer “sustained performance.”

The new platform promises “lightning-fast” app launches and app switching for better multitasking. Qualcomm’s AI Engine allows on-device AI processing, as well, made possible by the company’s upgraded Hexagon NPU that’s apparently 37 percent than its predecessor. “With Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, you are at the center of your mobile experience,” said Chris Patrick, the SVP and generation manager for mobile at Qualcomm. “It enables personalized AI agents to see what you see, hear what you hear and think with you in real time.”

In addition, Qualcomm says the new SoC is the first mobile platform to enable recording in Advanced Professional Video (APV) codec, giving creators the ability to film on their phones for professional-level productions. Several smartphone brands have already committed to using the new platform for their flagship devices, including Samsung, OnePlus, OPPO, Honor, iQOO, Nubia, POCO, realme, REDMI, RedMagic, ROG, Sony, vivo, Xiaomi and ZTE.



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Leaked PUBG Mobile Ad Shows Sonic Fighting A Skibidi Toilet
Game Updates

Leaked PUBG Mobile Ad Shows Sonic Fighting A Skibidi Toilet

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A CG-rendered trailer for PUBG Mobile‘s next big update appears to confirm previous rumors that Sonic the Hedgehog is going to be appearing soon in the popular mobile port of the battle royale game. But it also features Sega’s mascot fighting… Skibidi Toilets?

On September 24, Sonic Hotspot on Twitter posted what appears to be a real trailer for a yet-to-be-announced or confirmed Sonic crossover event in the long-running PUBG Mobile. This was spotted and sshared by SonicStadium.org on Bluesky. The pre-rendered event trailer shows Sonic the Hedgehog fighting a massive Skibidi Toilet character. Here’s the leaked trailer, and sorry in advance. I was going to link a YouTube re-upload of it, but that has since been removed. Hmm..

pic.twitter.com/BaLCNi5eAV

— Sonic Hotspot (@Sonic_Hotspot) September 24, 2025

Skibidi Toilets, which were created as part of a now massively popular YouTube animated series of shorts, were already announced to be coming to PUBG Mobile later this month, so it’s no surprise they are popping up in a leaked trailer. And Sonic has been rumored to be coming to PUBG Mobile for a few months now. Sega’s beloved mascot was even teased last month in an official PUBG Mobile post promising six new collaborations. So that’s also not a big surprise for fans, but a nice confirmation that he’ll be here soon. However, I don’t think anybody was expecting Sonic’s reveal to include Skibidi Toilets.

There is something deeply depressing about watching Sonic fight a Skibidi Toilet. It feels like my fears that all of pop culture will one day merge together into a single giant, boring blob of content are coming true, and faster than expected. Everything is becoming Fortnite, and because all of this crossover slop is making companies millions of dollars, it’s unlikely to stop anytime soon.

And so, that’s how we end up in a timeline where some silly videos made using the Source Engine have become a massively popular IP that has attracted the attention (and money) of Michael Bay. Sonic, you deserve better. We all do. Yet, here we are.





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Photo: Odd Andersen
Product Reviews

Everyone Thinks Elon Musk is Going to Build a SpaceX Mobile Network

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SpaceX’s has been partnering with mobile carriers like T-Mobile to offer its satellite internet service Starlink to extend the reach of cell networks. But, according to a report from the Washington Post, the company has ambitions to be more than just a partner. Following a major purchase of wireless spectrum earlier this week, it appears everyone is expecting Elon Musk’s company to get into the wireless network business for itself.

On Monday, it was reported that SpaceX was finalizing a deal with satellite communications company EchoStar, the parent company of Dish Network, to buy up $17 billion worth of wireless spectrum. All signs suggest that SpaceX is after that spectrum to help build out Starlink’s 5G network, with the rumored goal to move satellite connectivity for phones beyond just emergency services and access in remote locations to a full-blown mobile network.

Musk hasn’t exactly backed away from the rumors. In an appearance on the All-In Podcast, he claimed the newly acquired spectrum would allow the company to deliver “high-bandwidth connectivity” directly from satellites to connected devices, albeit with a two-year lead time to get everything set up. “The net effect is you should be able to watch videos anywhere on your phone,” he said. That’s a big jump from Starlink’s current network offerings, which is currently only used for sending and receiving texts. The company claims it’ll offer voice calls soon. And that two-year timeline? Take it with a grain of salt, given Musk’s longstanding history of overpromising, but it does at least give some clarity as to his company’s end goal.

As for starting up a network to compete with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, Musk didn’t rule it out when talking to the All-In guys, who are always more than happy to drink the Kool-Aid unprompted. Musk said that purchasing a mobile network provider like Verizon in the future is “not out of the question.” According to The Washington Post’s reporting, Starlink likely doesn’t have the spectrum to compete in urban environments where volume is massive and competitors have the infrastructure advantage when it comes to handling that traffic. So getting into those spaces may require an acquisition rather than building its own network.

If Musk and SpaceX were to go that route, it’s unlikely they would face regulatory hurdles under the current administration. As WaPo pointed out, Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission appointed by Donald Trump, called SpaceX’s spectrum purchase a “potential game changer” for mobile networks. You’re probably not going to see an in-depth review of potential antitrust concerns when the top cop on the beat has pom-poms in his hands.



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This Pop-Out Phone Controller Could Reinvent How We Think of Mobile Gaming
Gaming Gear

This Pop-Out Phone Controller Could Reinvent How We Think of Mobile Gaming

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Today’s retro recreations are so good at replicating the Game Boy’s look, feel, and portability. The problem is, my pockets are already occupied with my mobile supercomputer that contains my life behind a 6.3-inch pane of glass. If my phone has a powerful processor and excellent AMOLED display, why can’t it also become my gaming device when I’m on the go? MCON, the controller hyped to hell and back by young engineer Josh King and brought to market by phone peripheral makers OhSnap, could be enough to make me leave my handheld at home.

I first saw the $150 MCON phone peripheral back at CES 2025; only then it was a very early prototype using 3D-printed parts. Even then, I came away impressed with the collapsible phone controller. I had to duck and weave through many, many halls at IFA 2025 to find the miniscule stall for MCON’s designer OhSnap. The company let me wrap my exhausted hands around the new, black and clear plastic MCONs that will be shipping later this year after its successful Kickstarter from earlier this year.

MCON has surprisingly great-feeling controls

The MCON, even in its prototype state, felt surprisingly fun to use. © Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

When I look at most modern phone controllers, whether they’re the Backbone, the 8BitDo mobile controller, or a Razer Kishi, they all boil down to an Xbox controller split in half to make room for a phone. Some of those devices offer better controls or larger cavity space for up to the size of a 13-inch iPad. While they’re slim enough to fit in a bag, the issue with this classic design is they’re not so portable you can slip them into a pocket. MCON is about the size of a phone itself. It’s compact enough that it may fit into cargo pants-sized pockets or into a pocketbook. I doubt it could fit in most thin jeans without tearing a hole in your pants or thigh. The collapsible mobile controller also uses a MagSafe magnetic attachment point while it communicates with the phone over Bluetooth, rather than a physical USB-C connection.

You can think of MCON as a Nintendo DS or a slide-out PSP Go, though without a screen or PCB (printed circuit board) of its own. The controller collapses to the size of your average phone. With the press of a button, the spring-loaded front plate shoots out to reveal twin thumbsticks, four face buttons, and a D-pad. Two fold-out wings fan out from the base to create a pseudo-controller feel, though you can game without them if you can retreat to your Game Boy glory days, before companies cared a lick for wild concepts like “ergonomics.” The extra benefit of MCON is how it keeps the screen angled up, which may be more comfortable when sitting and gaming compared to Steam Deck-like handheld PCs or the Switch 2.

The version I used was a prefab design, though it’s the closest model the company had available for when the device went into full production. The full-size drift-resistant TMR (tunnel magnetoresistance) joysticks didn’t feel constrained despite being deep-set into the controller. While the buttons had a pleasantly shallow and clicky feel, I wouldn’t have been able to hear how loud they were in such a crowded convention hall. The real surprise was the two triggers. Despite being so thin and close to the device, they dipped to a surprising depth. I didn’t feel as much resistance for each trigger as I may have liked from my favorite controllers, but I would still prefer them over the clicky triggers of many DS-like devices.

Time to work out the kinks

The prototype MCON took a little too much effort to collapse, though that issue may be fixed by release. © Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

I didn’t get to play anything but Warped Kart Racers, a game that automatically accelerates for you. I imagine most people who backed the MCON controller are more interested in games without solid touch controls. It may be an option for cloud gaming when you have access to a strong Wi-Fi connection. What may be more exciting is how it could be used for retro emulation. The MCON’s MagSafe dock can slide out and reposition vertically for playing old-school Game Boy games on emulators, like Delta on iOS.

The pop-out mechanism felt fast and smooth, though I found it was difficult to push the magnetic plate back into place. It took two hands, offering a grating feel as the rail ground against itself. OhSnap! told me it was working on making that mechanism smoother as they run into full production. This is the kind of device designed for taking out while ignoring the world on your daily work commute, and it would be especially handy to collapse the MCON with one hand and slip it into your pocket when you need to. OhSnap said MCON should launch some time late in October, so we’ll know then if my phone might finally become the Game Boy I wanted it to be.



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GameFi Guides

You Can Earn Ethereum by Playing These Free Mobile Games

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Ethereum recently surged to an all-time high price just shy of $5,000, finally breaking its long-standing record from 2021. And if you’re keen on racking up as much ETH as you can while it’s hot, then here’s another method you might not have considered: playing games.

Much like with Bitcoin, a number of free mobile games pay out real ETH rewards. Games like Ethereum Blast, Word Breeze, and even Bitcoin Solitaire are built on the Bling Financial platform, letting players earn points that can be converted to Ethereum or Bitcoin, with ETH available to withdraw to a Coinbase account.

Keep your expectations in check: The amount of ETH you’ll earn typically averages out to pennies’ worth per hour, and you’ll watch a lot of ads between levels. But you’ll also earn real ETH, and most of these iOS and Android games are solidly fun aside from the interruptions.



Ethereum Blast

Download: iOS or Android

The one Ethereum-named game on this list is a space-themed puzzler, and it’s a simple one: When two or more like-colored blocks connect, you can tap to clear them from the board. You’ll do so to either axe a certain number of blocks or complete some kind of mission, like clearing a path for gems to fall to the bottom. It’s relatively mindless, but a decent diversion.

Sweet Bitcoin

Download: iOS or Android

Sweet Bitcoin is an unabashed Candy Crush Saga clone, and there’s truly no shortage of those on the App Store or Play Store. But this one’s a decent enough copycat, tasking you with swiping to match like-colored fruits and clear them from the screen—and like the other Bling games on this list, it’ll net you ETH or BTC rewards along the way.

Word Breeze

Download: iOS or Android

One of the more entertaining games on this list is Word Breeze—a simple game that tasks you with completinga crossword-style grid with words via a jumble of letters. You can play a few levels between the ad breaks, and while not especially difficult, it uses your brain more than some other games on this list… and might teach you a few terms in the process.

Bitcoin Solitaire

Download: iOS or Android

It’s solitaire, but with Bitcoin (and Ethereum). Yep, Bitcoin Solitaire is exactly what it says in the title: It’s a simple, straightforward rendition of the single-player card game, but with the ability to earn cryptocurrency along the way. We’ve enjoyed this one, and since solitaire games last longer than most of the titles on this list, you’ll encounter fewer ads.

Bitcoin Sudoku

Download: iOS or Android

Much like the above, Bitcoin Sudoku is simply sudoku with an added dollop of crypto rewards. And just like with Bitcoin Solitaire, the longer games work to your advantage if you loathe video ads, though you still get to withdraw Bitcoin or Ethereum rewards. It’s a solid rendition of the beloved number grid game with no frills, but that works just fine.

And more

There are a few other Bling Financial games that offer rewards in both Ethereum and Bitcoin—regardless of what the title says—such as Bitcoin Blocks, Bitcoin Food Fight, Bitcoin Blast, and Bitcoin Pop.

You can also find several other mobile games that only pay out Bitcoin rewards, but of course, you’re welcome to take those BTC winnings and swap them for ETH or other coins. We’ve covered many of them, including Bitcoin Miner and Idle Mine.

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Porting your mobile game to web browsers is a low-effort way to gain a fresh revenue stream | Opinion
Esports

Porting your mobile game to web browsers is a low-effort way to gain a fresh revenue stream | Opinion

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Pavel Polovinka is head of publishing at Playgama, a platform for the distribution and monetization of HTML5 games.

What happens when you hop from the mobile gaming market into the web one? Can you compare the two? Is there any point to this?

The short answers to these questions are: ‘almost effortless user acquisition’, ‘to some extent’, and ‘undoubtedly’.

The web game market is relatively tiny compared with mobile. But it’s also a growing market.

More to the point, it can be relatively easy to port your mobile title to HTML5 and distribute it to the various web platforms. The potential revenue might be much smaller than on mobile – but by ignoring the web market, you’re leaving money on the table.

Case study

Here’s an example of how Playgama enabled a pair of mobile games to find a new audience and revenue stream.

StoreRider, an all-in-one distributor of Android games on alternative stores, decided to venture into the web game market, and asked Playgama to help them. Most of the time, we provide our services to studios or web-oriented publishers, so StoreRider was a new type of client to work with.

StoreRider is a unique enterprise in many ways. It helps developers earn more from existing mobile games by distributing them outside the usual platforms, such as the App Store and Google Play. Instead, StoreRider explores alternative channels such as the Epic Games Store, One Store, telecom subscriptions, in-flight entertainment, US facilities, and web exports.

StoreRider initially uploaded two games – Gangsta Island: Crime City and Vikings: an Archer’s Journey, originally developed by Pinpin Team – to platforms including Playgama and Crazy Games. But after reaching around 500,000 play sessions, the company soon recognised the market potential and decided to cast a larger net.

Complications

StoreRider’s expertise lies in mobile, and the company didn’t have the time to optimize the source code for all of the different web platforms – let alone connect with the key publishers and drudge through compliance.

Take, for example, Facebook’s guide for Instant Games. One must spend hours reading through checklists, then days trying to adjust the game to fit the requirements. On top of that, there is the registration process, SDK integration, and support.

Multiply every step by the number of platforms one wants to be presented on, then again by the number of games, and the gargantuan amount of jobs to do starts to block the sun.

Initially, we didn’t plan to add any new features to the two StoreRider games. The idea was to obtain the source code for both of them and then integrate our SDK, which enables compatibility with any web platform.

Gangsta Island: Crime City | Image credit: Store Rider

However, we decided to go a little further. We optimized both games so that they would work flawlessly on mobile browsers within the WebGL context, and we increased the max memory usage capacity to guarantee smooth gameplay (thus reducing loading times and lowering the churn rate).

We also localized Vikings: An Archer’s Journey to 15 languages, and Gangsta Island: Crime City to three, and we added asynchronous saves and engagement tools, such as ‘Share with friends’, to plug into Facebook’s social mechanics.

Finally, we published both games on Playgama, MSN Games, Facebook, Yandex Games, VK, Game Distribution, Lagged, and Y8.

The results, although modest by the standards of big publishers, were inspiring. Over three months, the games achieved over one million play sessions, a 20% day one retention rate, and number one position in the MSN top ten for several consecutive weeks.

There’s little sense in comparing these figures to the vastly larger mobile market. But the key takeaway is this: a mobile distributor was able to find a new revenue stream with close to no contribution on their part.

Right now, we’re publishing the polished versions of StoreRider’s games to even more platforms. Overall, the WebGL optimization service seems promising, as we expect more mobile devs and distributors to hedge their bets with web gaming.

A slice of the pie

Let’s backtrack to the questions we posed in the beginning. Currently, the web gaming market is considered a Plan B for the mobile crowd – and rightfully so.

The mobile market dwarfs the web market in terms of volume: the former was worth $106.5 billion in 2024, whereas the latter came in at just $16.77 billion in the same year. As such, the potential revenue is far lower.

If you don’t succeed on mobile, it costs close to nothing to win something back on the web

Still, it is crucial to keep in mind that the web market is far more accessible in terms of marketing spending and user acquisition. If you don’t succeed on mobile, it costs close to nothing to win something back on the web.

As a closer, here’s some food for thought. The number of web browser games has increased by 4.9 times over the past two years, and the HTML5 games market is projected to grow to $31.9 billion by 2030.

If you hunger for a piece of this pie, it’s better to get your metaphorical fork out now. Entering this niche has never been easier, even for mobile studios and distributors.



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