Mobile games have gone from strength to strength in 2024, with a range of moreish, compelling hits releasing standalone, through Apple Arcade, and via streaming platforms like Netflix and Crunchyroll. It’s never been easier to grab your phone, download a game, and experience something incredible.
It’s been a particularly strong year for new mobile releases, with a small but mighty range of competitors in the field. Many games were dual launches for mobile, PC, and consoles – and realistically, some games from our other GOTY lists could also appear here. But for the sake of keeping things nice and neat, we’ve curated our mobile GOTY list to reflect mobile-only games, as well as multi-platform titles we specifically played on mobile.
With all that in mind, let’s get stuck in to reveal the GamesHub picks for the best mobile games of 2024.
Table of Contents
Tamagotchi Adventure Kingdom
Tamagotchi Adventure Kingdom is an entirely wholesome adventure sim that sees you rebuilding TamaTown after a devastating catastrophe. As a massive Tamagotchi fan, it delighted me to no end. I absolutely loved getting to wander its open world, and with each new quest, the game becomes more and more endearing. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a proper Tamagotchi game, and this one more than lived up to my expectations.
Read: Tamagotchi Adventure Kingdom review – Life is sweet
After all these years, it’s fantastic to see the Tamagotchi franchise still getting love and adoration, and to see it’s still worthy of such a high quality adaptation. The quests here are moreish. The action is lovely. Each and every moment you’re playing, you feel a bright sense of excitement, buoyed by creative flair. – Leah J. Williams
Zenless Zone Zero
Zenless Zone Zero leverages the genre expertise of miHoYo, and combines it with bold stylistic choices across character design, music and vibes. The result is a mobile gacha game that feels fresh, especially in a category chock-full of generic anime girl designs.
Read: Zenless Zone Zero has me wishing I could be like the cool kids
The action combat gameplay is simple to grasp, but deeply engaging on the back-end of character progression, which makes it perfect for on-the-go gameplay, while retaining enough depth to be worthy of a place on your console or PC as well. – Daniel Smith
Pokemon TCG Pocket
Pokemon TCG Pocket is a fantastic adaptation of the real-life Pokemon card game that provides opportunity to play it any way you like. If you’re a competitive PvP battler, you can tackle well-designed, streamlined rounds of gameplay against friends and strangers. If you prefer to test your skills alone, you can also take on rounds against an AI. And of course, if you just love collecting cards, you’re certainly well-served here.
Read: Pokemon TCG Pocket is your next mobile game obsession
Even with just a single collectible set available to players (for now), Pokemon TCG Pocket remains moreish and exciting as a daily game. Personally, I’m in a chat with a bunch of players, and seeing everyone share their best pulls and battle victories has been a highlight of the last few months. With its easy-breezy design, generous daily rewards, and brain-tickling battles, this was an ingenious launch for The Pokemon Company. – Leah J. Williams
Balatro
It’s the runaway hit that nobody saw coming, and everyone is playing. Balatro is a roguelike deckbuilder that is both a time-sink of the highest order (and we mean this as a compliment), and one of the most impressively sharp games we’ve seen in a while. – Steph Panecasio
Read: Balatro is pushing the roguelike deckbuilder to new territory
In their review, Nidula Geeganage said, “The innovations of Balatro are designed with an impressively cohesive intentionality; deftly balancing new ideas, depth, and player comprehension, while conveying its own distinctive player fantasy. With such artful design, the game’s success is not only well-deserved but also a boon to players – the genre has received yet another entry to its hall of fame.”
Dumb Ways to Survive
Dumb Ways to Survive was fairly underrated in 2024. If you’re a fan of survival games, or just seeing PlaySide’s cutesy little Beans getting into trouble, you should absolutely check this game out. It essentially drops you in a forest environment, and tasks you with finding a way out using your wiles. But beware, the forest is full of mean old creatures, and a stick won’t be enough to fend off their advances.
Read: PlaySide Studios continues to defy the odds
You’ll need to figure out the game’s many unique survival tricks to advance, collecting materials, crafting, fighting beasts, improving your camp, and eventually moving on to brighter horizons. What is particularly fetching about this game, and what was most endearing, is your entire, terrifying journey is rendered in a cutesy art style that makes it resemble a living cartoon. As with other Dumb Ways spin-offs, it’s the pairing of cosy art with morbid circumstances that makes it so fun, funny, and memorable. – Leah J. Williams
