2018 is the year mobile gaming started to get serious

While smartphones have been popular gaming platforms for years, they've never really been able to directly compete with modern computers and consoles. Until 2018.

As smartphone hardware keeps getting better and better, the technological gap between phones and consoles grows thinner and thinner. We're seeing games that would normally only come out on computer and consoles be released on smartphones. Mobile gaming is finally going up against the big dogs.

Look at Fortnite, arguably the biggest game of 2018. Fortnite Battle Royale released on computers and consoles in late 2017 and then followed not long after with versions on iOS and Android in April and August 2018.

The mobile version is basically identical to the other versions of the game, and players across platforms can even play with each other online. For a competitive shooter game like Fortnite, this was basically unheard of.

This has happened with other games too, like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), Dandara, and Ark: Survival Evolved, all of which are comparable to their console and computer versions. Sure, the look of Dandara isn't too far off from what you'd expect to see on mobile, but it is a demanding platformer that requires some precise actions, which in turn requires some very precise and responsive hardware.

This is sparking something in the general game development world, which has been aided by the popularity of the Nintendo Switch, a handheld/home console hybrid that has become a sort of dream home for indie games. The Switch is helping to blur the line between handheld and home consoles, showing that games can exist simultaneously in both spaces.

It's undoubtedly helping to blur the line between mobile and home consoles too.

We're seeing game developers look at mobile more seriously thanks to some of the groundwork that games like Fortnite have laid down.

In November, Blizzard Entertainment revealed that its new Diablo game, Diablo Immortal, is going to be mobile-only, but instead of making it a mobile experience, it looks and plays like a regular Diablo game for computers and consoles.

In early December, the Command & Conquer series saw its first new release since 2012 in Command & Conquer: Rivals, which is only available on iOS and Android. Since the first game kicked off the series in '90s, Command & Conquer has been a PC mainstay. Until 2018.

This is a year that marks the beginning of a shift in the mobile gaming market and the gaming market at large as developers consider smartphones as viable platforms for new, full-fledged experiences.

Matching this trend of seeing smartphones as gaming devices rather than communication devices, we've seen hardware companies like Razer create phones that are made specifically for mobile gaming. Look at the Razer Phone 2 with its gaming focus and game-specific features.

This shift in the smartphone and gaming industry has just begun, and thanks to the fact that so many people have smartphones, it's an appealing market for developers of both games and hardware, which will help it grow quickly into a space that can stand alongside the likes of consoles and computers.