Casino games might be rooted in the kind of post-war glamor that James Bond draws heavily from but, in 2018, they’re more popular than they’ve ever been before.

Remote gambling across the world has seen a huge uptick in popularity, thanks to huge competition in betting, casino and games of chance. Indeed, according to the Gambling Commission, the total gambling yield for April 2016 to May 2017 climbed 1.8% to £13.8bn – and that’s in the UK alone; it’s over $450bn in the USA!

Those are amazing numbers and a testament to the hard work being done to make gambling as fast, fun and easy as possible to pick up – but they don’t tell the whole story.

While gaming has grown quickly, the real story is the wholesale shift being made towards mobile gaming and, in particular, browser-based mobile gaming.

In this article, we’re going to share with you just how popular mobile gaming is, why it’s so popular and how we have one major advancement to thank – HTML5.

How Popular is Mobile Gaming?

It only takes a cursory glance around any train or waiting room to see just how big mobile gaming has become across the world. We’re glued to our screens and we’re not afraid to pay for the privilege, with the global mobile gaming market amounting to more than $52bn in 2018.

Mobile gaming is a broad church though, covering everything from Angry Birds to language-learning games, but there’s one sector which is growing far faster than any other – remote casino gaming.

Being able to take our favourite online casinos with us wherever we go has transformed the mobile gaming landscape. What’s more, developers have tried to cram as much as possible into their mobile apps to avoid diminishing the experience when compared to desktop play. 

For instance, the 32Red mobile casino app includes 100 games, inclusive of both slot and table varieties. The brand refers to their Android, Windows and iOS apps as casinos “put through a hot wash” – shrunk in size but no less endearing to 32Red’s players. 

It’s just another string in the bow of mobile gaming, one that’s often disregarded when discussing its emergence. 

What’s Driving the Popularity of Mobile Gaming?

If you had to pick just two aspects of mobile gaming that are driving forwards its immense popularity, both in reference to the conventional hobby and casino apps like Bet Victor’s, you’d be hard pushed to find two better than ‘simplicity’ and ‘access’.

Mobile gaming is seen as simpler primarily because the rise of touchscreen gaming has removed many of the barriers to entry that plague traditional gaming. The biggest driving force though has been the access we all now have to smart devices. Not only are these devices connected to the internet at all times but they’re on our person at all times, giving unparalleled access to gaming opportunities.

Many of us carry tablets, smartphones and laptops around with us on a daily basis and each is more than capable of accessing and playing high-quality games over the internet. Quite simply, we live in a world gone mobile and, as we shift to a reliance on these devices for almost everything, there’s only one trajectory for mobile gaming.

Perhaps most interestingly of all though has been the shift away from app-based gaming and towards web-based gaming. It’s a product of vast advancements in mobile web browsers and one standard in particular – HTML5.

How HTML5 Has Moved Gaming to the Browser

HTML5 was launched in only October 2014 but, in that short space of time, it has quickly become the standard for video, audio and gaming content online. Designed to reduce browser stress and bandwidth requirements for high-quality videos and gaming, HTML5 has replaced Flash almost entirely thanks to its improved battery life, no download requirements and support across all major platforms including Android and iOS.

That kind of cross-platform compatibility and clear superiority over Flash Player has meant incredibly wide adoption, powering everything from YouTube to 32Red.

It’s also proved a significant threat to app-based gaming. Why? Because there are a number of advantages that only browser-based gaming can offer. Specifically, in-browser gaming allows you pick up and put down your game at any point, wherever you are. Popping into a meeting? Close the browser and when you’re at your desk simply head back to pick up where you left off.

There are also advantages in both security and reliability, with clearly visible security certificates on browser-based games and a significantly easier process for updating the website than updating the app, which often has to go through a weeks-long submission process before being accepted.

It’s why HTML5-powered online gaming has become such a force and, with so many companies innovating in the space, we wouldn’t bet against continued growth.