The Online Gaming industry is going from strength to strength. The global iGaming industry was estimated to be worth $162.32 billion in 2020. If it maintains its current growth rate, predictions are that it will hit nearly $300 billion over the next five years.

And the Mobile Gaming industry is a massive contributor to this growth. The estimates for this year put its worth at $94.8 billion globally. And that’s expected to reach $139.5 billion by 2026. That’s almost half of the value of the overall Online Gaming industry.

As well as increased interest in all activities online due to the recent pandemic and consequent lockdowns, this growth is being spurred by the rollout of 5G networks.

5G offers increased speeds, reduced latency and more capacity than 4G. This makes for a much better gaming experience, whether you’re playing a simple game of online slots on your mobile phone or an online multi-player game that involves hundreds of people around the globe.

In terms of speed, 5G offers peak speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second. That’s around ten times faster than 4G. So, you can download a full HD movie in just a few seconds. But more importantly, for gaming, 5G has a much lower latency than 4G. Latency is the time it takes for a signal to travel from your device to the server and back again.

And that’s important for gaming because you need to have a fast and responsive connection so that your inputs are registered in the game without any delay. 5G latency is around ten times lower than 4G, at just five milliseconds.

Basically, this means that 5G is going to lead to a much better gaming experience. There will be less lag, more responsiveness and smoother gameplay. And that’s good news for players and the Mobile Gaming industry as a whole.

5G is also set to have a big impact on Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). These are both areas of gaming that are growing in popularity. But they require a lot of data to work properly. 5G will make AR and VR games much more responsive and realistic. And mobile gaming is set to benefit from this too. The next generation of smartphones will be able to take advantage of 5G to deliver AR and VR gaming experiences that are on par with dedicated consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Imagine playing your favourite game, like Call of Duty, but you’re actually in the game instead of just looking at a screen. 5G will see the eSports sector grow too. More people will be able to watch live gaming events and tournaments without any buffering or lag. And that will lead to even more people tuning in and getting involved in eSports.

And we are already seeing this happen! Twitch, the popular game streaming service, saw a 17% increase in hours watched in the first quarter of 2020. This was partly due to the lockdowns, but it’s also a sign of the growing popularity of eSports.

As you can see, 5G is set to have a big impact on the Mobile Gaming industry. It will improve the gaming experience for players and open up new opportunities for game developers. So, it’s definitely an exciting time to be a gamer!