One of the things that makes the mobile gaming world so captivating and appealing is its capacity to adapt to, meet and satisfy the needs and preferences of all its users.
Developers provide them with different mobile games categories, each of which offers a unique gaming experience, appealing to a diverse range of preference and emotions. Making a concrete example, the most popular mobile games in 2023 are such because they have succeeded in reaching, connecting and engaging with a global audience.
Mobile gaming means above all creating experiences, and as we draw closer and closer to the end of the year, we are going to introduce some mobile games that have proved to be so entertaining and thrilling as to catch the attention of millions around the world.
In particular, in this article we’ll present the stories and contents of 10 among the most popular mobile games in 2023 across 3 game categories: puzzle games, casual games, and strategy games.
Most Popular Mobile Puzzle Games in 2023
Most Popular Mobile Casual Games in 2023
Most Popular Mobile Strategy Games in 2023
Mobile puzzle games are a type of mobile game that typically involve solving challenges, riddles, or problems to achieve objectives and progress through levels or stages with increasing difficulty as the game unfolds.
Depending on the puzzle game type, they may also include elements of storytelling or competition with other players, even if they are usually single-player games.
Mobile puzzle games cater to a broad audience, with some designed for casual gamers seeking a relaxing experience and others targeting more dedicated players who enjoy challenging puzzles.
Their main purposes include providing entertainment, stimulating strategic thinking and testing problem-solving skills, such as logic, pattern recognition, word completion and sequence solving.
They have several sub-genres that may include match-3 games, logic and brain-teasers games, word puzzles, and many others.
Among the most popular mobile games in 2023 within the puzzle games category we can name Block Blast!, Storyteller and Royal Match.
Block Blast! is a fun and addictive block puzzle game combining creativity with the classics, perfect for when you want to kill time and challenge your brain.
The goal of the game is simple but fun: remove as many blocks as possible to get a high score. To clear all the three-pieces blocks, you have to fill columns or rows as soon as they appear. If you remove several at the same time, you can make combos. The more combos you perform, the more points you get!
The developer is Hungry Studio, a game company in Hong Kong that became known after the release of Black Black, one of the most popular mobile games in 2023.
Indeed, within a year after its launch Block Blast gained great popularity, currently stands at #1 in the ranking of the best free puzzle games on Google Play Store and at #3 on the Apple App Store within the same category.
Storyteller is a creative puzzle mobile game, created by Daniel Benmergui (Fidel Dungeon Rescue) and Annapurna Interactive, but distributed by Netflix, Inc.. Indeed, the game is available exclusively for Netflix members.
In addition to solving puzzles and riddles, users can use their creativity and imagination to become authors of incredible brand new stories.
The mechanism is simple! Users are given the title and a small outline of the ending of the story. Then, they have to choose among a wide selection of scenarios, characters and themes: heroes and villains, dragons and vampires, infidelity and revenge, love, lies, madness, and more!
Once they make their choice, they just have to drag each of these elements onto the blank panels and they can watch their own stories in motion on their screens.
The game was released less than two months ago; nevertheless it is quickly climbing the rankins on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store, becoming one of the most popular mobile games in 2023!
Speaking of most popular mobile games in 2023, we could not but name Royal Match that, since its publication, has kept growing. Still today, it stands at #1 on Apple App Store among the best free-to-play mobile puzzle games and at #1 top grossing puzzle on Google Play Store.
Developed in 2020 by Dream Games, Royal Match is a match-3 puzzle game in which players will have to swipe colors and match items to clear all rows and columns within a limited number of moves or within a specific time frame, with increasing difficulty as players progress
The goal is to solve challenging levels and receive coins and rewards in order to help King Robert restore his castel’s former glory.
Once you start solving the levels, you will move to the palace where you can start decorating all the rooms. In many levels you will also find some elements such as rockets that will allow you to destroy multiple pieces at once. In fact, by completing the challenges you can also earn other bonuses that will help you in different situations.
Players can also join forces with a team and get help from teammates. Whether as a team or individually, they can engage in local and global competitions.
Mobile casual games are those that span a wide range of genres and that typically employ straightforward and easy-to-understand gameplay mechanics.
These games often prioritize simplicity, ensuring that players can quickly grasp the rules and objectives without the need for complex tutorials.
Indeed, mobile casual games are designed to be accessible to players of all ages and skill levels, so that they address a broad and diverse audience, ranging from occasional games to those who may not have extensive gaming experience.
Unlike more immersive and time-consuming games, mobile casual games are crafted for short play sessions. This design caters to the on-the-go nature of mobile gaming, allowing players to engage with the game during brief intervals of free time, so that they can be played anywhere.
Among the most popular mobile games in 2023 within the casual games category we can name Watermelon Game: Monkey Land, My Coloring Book, Magic Tiles 3: Piano Game and Tap Away 3D.
Watermelon Game: Monkey Land is a casual game created in 2023 by Q-SSUM STUDIO, a cute and fun mobile games developer.
The aim of the game is very simple but addictive: players must combine different types of fruits as they trop from above and merge the ones that are the same in order to create a giant watermelon. This will allow them to earn points and move up the scoreboard.
The game doesn’t have a competitive mode, then players must compete and beat themselves each time and get the best score possible.
During the game, all that players know is just which fruit will come next, but not how they will roll. Then, players will have to think carefully about where to place the fruit. Luckily, Watermelon Game: Monkey Land remains a casual game, so players will not feel too challenged.
The difficulty is that the more they merge, the bigger the fruit will get and, therefore, the less space they’ll have to move.
Its current first-position in the best free-to-play casual games ranking on Apple App Store confirms Watermelon Game: Monkey Land as one the most popular mobile games in 2023!
My Coloring Book is a casual mobile game developed in 2010 by Jeff Pedersen where players of all ages can have fun coloring different images.
With this game players have the chance to show off their creativity and, as there are no instructions about which color to use, they can let their imagination run wild by simply tapping on the different spaces.
Though many years old, My Coloring Book is one of the most popular games in 2023, standing at #8 in the ranking of the best free casual games on Apple App Store.
It owes its current success to a recent TikTok trend in which users download the game, pick the same scenes to color in separately with a friend, compare their work and post the results on the platform.
Magic Tiles 3: Piano Game is a music casual mobile game developed in 2018 by Amanotes Pte. Ltd. that satisfies every music taste. Players can lose themselves among over 1000 songs and different music genres: from pop and rap to jazz and classical music.
The rules of the game are very easy: players must tap the black tiles at the right moment and avoid the white ones! If they hit the wrong one or miss a key, they will have to start over.
Step by step the game becomes more difficult as with each song level the speed increases, so that players have the chance to improve their rhythm as well as playing the band mode, that is using different instruments such as guitars, piano and many
more!
Magic Tiles also includes a competitive component with weekly tournaments. Moreover, players can connect with other people all around the world or directly challenge their friend into a room.
In addition to be in the top ten of the best casual games on Apple App Store, Magic Tiles 3 also stands at #1 in the free-to-play music games both on Apple App Store and Google Play Store, fully deserving to be recognized as one of the most popular mobile games in 2023!
Mobile strategy games are characterized by a focus on strategic thinking, planning, and decision-making to achieve specific objectives within the game's virtual environment.
These games typically incorporate resource management elements, requiring players to gather, allocate, and wisely use various in-game crucial resources such as coins, raw materials, or energy.
Many mobile strategy games involve the construction and management of a virtual base or city, so that players build structures, upgrade facilities, and organize their base layout to optimize resource production and defensive capabilities.
Many mobile strategy games offer multiplayer features, allowing players to interact with others globally. This can include alliances, cooperative gameplay, or player versus player (PvP) battles, adding a competitive and social dimension to the gaming experience.
Among the most popular mobile games in 2023 within the strategy games category we can name Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Whiteout Survival and Total Battle: Tactical War Game.
Clash of Clans is a strategy mobile game developed by the Finnish company Supercell and published in 2012 for iOS and in 2013 for Android. Thanks to its engaging strategic gameplay and fun and addictive gaming experience, it is one of the most popular mobile games of 2023.
It is a real-time strategy game - meaning that players must think and make decisions quickly as events unfold - in which players must build their own village by using resources and train troops to attack other players’ villages to gain resources and trophies.
Constructing buildings is an important part of the game - as they will help players to defend their own village - but it is also crucial to attack opposing villages to accumulate resources and trophies. To do this, they need to train an army consisting of troops, spells, war machines and heroes.
The game allows players to form and join communities, called clans, which are groups of up to 50 users. Clans players can donate troops to each other and go on war with other clans. There is also the possibility to attack members of their own clan to train and try strategies.
Another masterpiece created by Supercell is Clash Royale, developed in 2016. Again, it is a real-time strategy game in which players can join or form clans with other players, which allows them to engage in friendly battles and clan wars.
The game combines elements of multiplayer online battle arena, tower defense and collectible card games, many of which are based on troops, buildings and spells of Clash of Clans.
Clash Royale puts players in games featuring two or four players (1v1 or 2v2) in which the objective is to destroy more towers than their opponent(s) in order to win the battle. Before each battle, players construct a deck of eight cards which they use to attack and defend against their opponent’s cards.
In case of victory you will earn coins and trophies, which are essential to advance between the various arenas present in the game.
Even in this case players can join or form clans with other players, which allows them to engage in friendly battles and clan wars. There are 23 arenas and 10 leagues in total, divided by the number of trophies the player has.
Clash Royale remains at the top of the ranks of the best strategy mobile games: it stands at #1 on Google Play Store and #2 on Apple App Store, confirming itself as one of the most popular mobile games in 2023!
Whiteout Survival is a survival strategy game to center on a glacial apocalypse theme developed this same year by Century Games Pte. Ltd. that puts the players in the middle of a relentless, icy tundra.
Whiteout Survival is not just a game, it is an experience that tests players’ strategic and decision-making skills, as well as their survival instincts: every choice they make will shape their path.
The aim of the game is to build, manage and lead a community of survivors that have to withstand a new set of challenges: vicious blizzards, ferocious beasts, and opportunistic bandits looking to prey on their despair.
With Whiteout Survival, the fate of humanity is in the players’ hands!
Players must complete various missions to make sure that no one dies during the cold. They will have to build shelters, develop technology, assign their survivors to specialized roles (hunter, woodcutter), seize the resources of the community, conquer the ice field and build alliances in order to beat other millions of gamers around the world.
Standing at #1 on the Apple App Store in the ranking of the best strategy mobile games. mobile puzzle games, Whiteout Survival is undoubtedly one of the most popular mobiles in 2023.
Total Battle: Tactical War Game is a 2018 war strategy mobile game developed by Scorewarrior that takes players in a fantasy open world of battles between ancient civilizations, magic kingdom and great empires.
It is an online real-time strategy game with PvE and PvP modes where players must command, defend and conquer kingdoms, castles and their territory against dozens of types of magic enemies of different levels: from monsters and elves to barbarians and wizards.
The task of the players is to develop a base and establish a strong tower defense to win all the king's battles and become the Lord of all the Kingdoms. In order to do so, they have to carefully choose their strategy for managing the troops in their army. Each unit has unique abilities for going to war against monsters and other players.
In Total Battle, clans with members from all over the world fight for battle glory. Thus players can join a clan of like-minded people, play with friends, and climb to the top of the war rankings.
