From the monochrome Snake game of chunky Nokia mobiles to the glossy graphics of the universally loved Candy Crush - nobody could have predicted quite how globally popular mobile games would become. In 2016, the mobile gaming industry made an incredible $38 billion in revenue - and its growth doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. But what are the most popular mobile games of all time - and have you tried them all?

Pokémon Go!

The goal in Pokémon Go is to catch as many Pokémon as possible before battling them out at Pokémon gyms. The key factor that makes this smartphone game different than past Pokémon titles is its augmented reality - you move your character by walking around in the physical world, exploring anywhere between your own home town to somewhere abroad, to find rare and useful Pokémon to catch. The map will guide you to the nearest Pokémon, and you can get free Pokéballs, Masterballs, eggs and gems at Pokéstops. Players can also ‘level up’ their trainer, take over entire gyms and thereby protect them from other teams, and earn medals as they progress through the game. Pokémon Go! went viral upon its release, but is still as popular as ever, and hailed for its active-based gameplay which sees users go out into nature.

Clash of Clans

At its core, Clash of Clans is a strategy game where the primary objective is to be the player to have won the most trophies. You earn trophies either by successfully attacking someone else’s village, or by successfully defending against an attack from another online player. As you earn more trophies, you climb the ranks and get matched against opponents of equal or greater skill. The ultimate goal is to work your way to the very top — the Champion class. To get there, you’ll need to spend either quite a bit of time, or quite a bit of money to upgrade your village, train your soldiers, and develop the best strategies for both offense and defense.

Minecraft

Minecraft is essentially a “sandbox” game – players are given a basic, empty virtual world to explore, in which they can build items and housing from basic materials which they ‘mine’ – wood, stone, bedrock, iron ore, sand, etc. Then comes the ‘craft’ part, combining the resources mined to create more complex tools. From this simple premise, the game evolves in complexity with many different levels and modes of play - including Creative, Survival and Adventure. At night, malevolent creatures and enemies are on the attack and must be vanquished, or you are in danger of being killed off and losing all your gains. But not to worry, you’ll be ‘re-spawned’ in no time at all. Minecraft has shown to be hugely popular amongst children and adults alike.

Starburst

In general, mobile slots have proven a great hit - no doubt because opting to play mobile slot games (as opposed to traditional slot machines) allows the players to claim bonuses and other perks from the online casino at which they play. Starburst is by far the most popular of these mobile slot games, with a free variant for those who don’t want to bet real money. The game has five reels and ten play lines, featuring a number of shiny and sparkling symbols in line with the game’s jewel and space theme. Central to its popularity is its simplicity, medium velocity payout, enticingly colourful graphics and ‘free spins’ granted by the appearance of a shimmering wild symbol.

Temple Run

In Temple Run, your character will embark on an adventure to seek out an ancient and valuable golden idol from an Aztec temple. The temple is inhabited by demonic monkeys out to destroy the ‘invader’. As the game is an endless running game, there is no end to the temple; the game runs until the character collides with a large obstacle, falls into the water or is overtaken by the demon monkeys. While running, the player can swipe left, right, up or down to move the character to different sides and thereby collect coins and/or avoid obstacles. The coins can be used to buy or upgrade power-ups and/or other characters. Coins can also be bought through in-app purchases for actual money. In 2014 Temple Run and its sequel had been downloaded over 1 billion times.

Clash Royale

Clash Royale is a fast-paced adrenalin rush where you collect cards and duel players in real time. Destroy your opponent’s Crown Towers - but be sure to defend your own. This tower rush game pits players in games featuring two and four players in which the objective is to destroy the most number of opposing towers, with the destruction of the “King Tower” being an instantaneous win. Players are ranked by their number of crown points. Levels are attained by gaining Experience (or King Level) points through donating cards. Trophies are won or lost through multiplayer battles. There are twelve playing arenas in total, with each arena corresponding to a certain trophy count range.

Angry Birds

Angry Birds is a casual puzzle video game developed by Rovio Mobile. In the game, players use a slingshot to launch birds at their pig enemies stationed in or around various structures, with the goal of destroying all the pigs on the playing field. The game has won acclaim for its successful combination of fun gameplay, comical style, and low price. Its popularity led to many spin-offs, a market for merchandise featuring its characters, a televised cartoon series and a feature film. By July 2015, the series’ games have been downloaded more than 3 billion times collectively, making it the most downloaded freemium game series of all time. Upon its release, the number of downloads within the first year also made it the fastest growing game of all time.

Candy Crush Saga

Candy Crush Saga is a free-to-play match-three puzzle game released by King initially for Facebook – but now available as a stand-alone game for a number of devices. In the game, players complete levels by swapping coloured pieces of candy on a game board to make a match of three or more of the same color, eliminating those candies from the board and replacing them with new ones, which could potentially create further matches. Matches of four or more candies create unique candies that act as power-ups with larger board-clearing abilities. Boards have various goals that must be completed within a fixed number of moves or limited amount of time, such as a certain score or collecting a specific number of a type of candy. Candy Crush Saga is considered one of the first and most successful uses of a freemium model; while the game can be played without spending money, players can buy special actions to help clear more difficult boards. Five years after its release on mobile, the title has been downloaded over 2.7 billion times.

Words With Friends

Words with Friends is a multiplayer word game developed by Newtoy, and inarguably the most popular mobile word game ever. The rules of the game are mostly the same as those of two-player Scrabble, with a few differences such as the arrangement of premium squares and some of the letters’ point values. Players are given seven randomly chosen letter tiles, which are replenished until all 104 tiles have been used. Players take turns forming words on the board or, instead of playing a word, may also choose to swap tiles with the pool of currently unused tiles or pass their turn. Since the game’s launch, the random opponent and chat features of the game have led to a number of Transatlantic relationships - some romantic, and some simply unlikely but endearing.

Fruit Ninja

In Fruit Ninja, the player slices fruit with a blade controlled via the touch screen. As the fruit is thrown onto the screen, the player swipes their finger across the screen to create a slicing motion, attempting to slice the fruit in half. Extra points are awarded for slicing multiple fruits with one swipe (called “combo”s), and players can use additional fingers to make multiple slices simultaneously. Players must slice all fruit; if three fruits are missed, the game ends, but upon reaching scores that are multiples of one hundred (100, 200, 300, etc.), the player will gain an extra life. Bombs are occasionally thrown onto the screen, but will also end the game should the player accidentally slice them.

Subway Surfers

Subway Surfers is an endless runner game co-developed by Kiloo and SYBO Games, Players take the role of teenage vandals who, upon being caught ‘tagging’ a metro railway site with graffitti, are chased down railway tracks by an inspector and his dog. As they run, they grab gold coins out of the air while simultaneously dodging collisions with railway cars and other objects. They can also jump on top of trains to evade capture. Special events, such as the Weekly Hunt, can result in in-game rewards and characters. In 2017, Subway Surfers was the most downloaded game across the globe. In May 2018, Subway Surfers crossed the two billion download mark.

Whether you’re ten or sixty years old, the enthralling fun and on-the-go convenience of a good mobile game has the same appeal. Viral hits come and go (who can forget the notoriously difficult Flappy Bird, or the cute factor of cat-collecting game Neko Atsume) but some titles remain as enduringly popular throughout the years, such as the iconic titles we compiled in this list of the ten most popular mobile games of all time.