Games Made with Unity Engine: Dominating 50% of the Mobile Market

Cubix

7 Jan, 2022

.

5 min read

The Rise of Games Made with Unity Engine

By 2026, Unity’s market share in mobile game development is projected to reach 55–60%, thanks to AR/VR growth and real-time 3D adoption.

This past decade has seen booming growth in the mobile gaming industry, from a few hundred million dollars to several billion dollars globally. Most popular titles in the mobile arena owe their success to one consistent tool: the Unity cross-platform engine. Today, more than 50 percent of all mobile games are developed by the Unity game engine

But why is Unity over all the options available in the mobile game development space? Many of the top-performing games made with the Unity engine dominate app stores and lead player engagement.

Here we will look into some of the reasons for Unity’s fame, how it stands against some of its alternatives, such as Unreal, and why it is the best-selling option for game developers all around the globe.

Read More: Unity Video Game Engine – The Future of Gaming

The Rise of Games Made with Unity Engine

Unity is highly cross-platform and user-friendly and is known as a pretty decent game engine in the world. Unity has enabled thousands of indie developers and some of the largest studios to create epic mobile and desktop games with significant performance and stunning graphics.

This, here, isn’t exactly why a plethora of the game’s systems are dominating the app store: 

  • Unity supports 25 different platforms, including Android and iOS
  • Build an app and deploy it on all devices using a single code
  • Built-in asset stores and libraries expedite development
  • The Unity 3D engine is free for download from the beginning yet cheap for professionals

Well, they’ve made Unity the go-to name for building cost-effective, scalable cross-platform games.

Read More: How to Make a 3D Game in Unity – Beginner’s Guide

Cross Platforms Development: Unity’s Superpower

The primary advantage that Unity hardware boasts is cross-platform functionality. That is, with just one code, developers can build for Android, iOS, Windows, OS X, Linux, and even AR/VR platforms. This shortens the development line and costs dramatically.

Unity’s unparalleled reach provides access to developers who are keen to expand their audiences. Whether it is tablets, smartphones, or smart TVs, your game will look and behave excellently on every device.

That is one of the main reasons games created with the Unity engine rule the mobile gaming arena.

“Unity empowers developers to launch games across devices without rewriting code, this agility is why it leads mobile game development today.”

– Shoaib Abdul Ghaffar, VP of Engineering, Cubix

Unity vs. Unreal: Why Unity Wins in Mobile

Though the Unreal Engine is an excellent tool for high-end games on console and PC, Unity is still the preferred engine for mobility. Here’s why Unity beats Unreal on mobile:

FeatureUnityUnreal
Ease of UseUser-friendlyCourse steep
File SizeLightweightHeavy for mobile
Asset StoreExtensiveGood but smaller
CommunityLarge, activeSmaller for mobile
Ideal for 3DMobile GamesAAA console/PC games

The download of the Unity game engine is fast, and the site is intuitive enough for the average developer with basic programming skills to “have a go.” Many games made with Unity engine benefit from this accessibility. Unreal power, highly photorealistic graphics, and intricate mechanics are almost unused by mobile offerings.

That doesn’t mean Unreal has no usage on mobile; it does. But the volume and diversity go to Unity.

Read More: Unity vs Unreal Engine – Better for Metaverse Development

Cost Effective Game Made With Unity Engine

A lot of developers, especially indie teams, are working on a tight budget. Unity offers a free version with a good feature set and requires the revenue-sharing model only if the game crosses a certain earning threshold. 

This very accessibility has led to unparalleled creativity. A lot of small teams have made it big with titles such as Monument Valley, Crossy Road, and Among Us, games made with Unity engine with the cost-effectiveness and versatility of Unity.

Further, Unity has ensured great documentation, tutorials, and community support to help newcomers to fast-track learning without having to spend on large teams.

Read More: How Much Does Unity Game Development Cost? 

Unity Asset Store: Speed Up Development

The Unity Asset Store is home to an extensive collection of ready-made assets, scripts, tools, and templates. The marketplace (Asset Store) thus allows developers to concentrate fully on their game logic and use pre-made resources for anything from character models to UI kits. 

With thousands of assets available, free and inexpensive, the Asset Store gives quick game prototyping and easy development. For this reason, among many others, Unity is a foremost choice in mobile game development.

On the contrary, the Unreal engine does boast an excellent marketplace but lacks the same variety and emphasis on mobile-specific assets.

High-Performance Mobile Graphics

Unity has grown over the years to accommodate visually beautiful 2D animation and 3D animation, motion graphics animation, and lighting systems that run carefully on mobile hardware. Developers can tweak performance and battery use with good support for OpenGL, Vulkan, and Metal APIs.

The Unity 3D engine download has integrated features such as

  • Universal Render Pipeline (URP) for improving performance
  • GPU instancing for rendering optimization
  • Visual Effect Graph for very astonishing effects

Such tooling empowers mobile developers to build games that are beautiful in design yet fast and stable in performance, and hence it accounts for more than half of the world’s mobile games that rely on Unity. 

Community and Learning Resources

Indeed, one of Unity’s best features is its community. With millions of developers using the Unity video game engine, finding answers, resources, and inspiration is easy.

Whether you are brand-new to Unity 3D engine download or working on your tenth mobile title, you will enjoy

  • Active forums and developer groups
  • Thousands of video tutorials
  • Unity Learn and certification programs
  • Open-source Unity projects on GitHub

This great ecosystem gives developers all the support they need to reach success, regardless of their level.

Unity for 2D and Hyper-Casual Games

3D Unity is known, of course, but it’s also great for 2D or hyper-casual games. Such types of games are worth a good percentage of the revenue earned through mobile gaming.

The 2D toolkit of Unity includes:

  • Management of sprites
  • Tilemaps
  • 2D physics capabilities
  • Integrated animation tools

Some examples of well-known games in the world that were created by Unity engine with the excellent use of the above tools are Angry Birds 2 and Alto’s Adventure.

Read More: Best Hyper-Casual Game Ideas for Businesses 

Unity Keeps Up With Trends: AR, VR, and Cloud Gaming

Unity is not solely mobile. It goes within itself to adapt and stay ahead of the curve in the trends of AR gaming, VR gaming, and cloud gaming. Developers initiate and progress to the newer platforms under the same Unity codebase.

This is critical, particularly for mobile game developers. You can create now for smartphones and later for AR glasses, VR headsets, or cloud-streamed devices without having to rebuild your entire project.

In comparison, the Unreal Engine often represents more customization for cross-platform shifts.

Read More: AR Apps for Business – Use Cases and Benefits

Unity Game Engine Download: Getting Started Is Easy

It is easy to get started with Unity. Simply visit the official site and hit the Unity game engine download button, and within minutes, you will have access to Unity Hub, sample projects, and tutorials that will walk you through creating your very first game. 

The Unity 3D engine download provides:

  • Complete development IDE
  • Scene builder and editor
  • Visual scripting for non-programmers
  • Play Mode for direct testing 

All these features reduce the entry barrier for any interested game developer.

Top Mobile Games Made with Unity

Here are some iconic mobile games made with Unity engine:

  • Pokémon Go: Augmented reality game that captivated millions.
  • Call of Duty (Mobile): AAA shooter brought to mobile with Unity.
  • Monument Valley: Critically acclaimed indie puzzle game.
  • Crossy Road: Viral casual game with simple mechanics and huge replay value.
  • Among Us: Social deception game that became a cultural phenomenon.

These games showcase Unity’s range and adaptability across genres.

Read More: Most Popular Mobile Game Categories 

Final Thoughts: Unity Powers the Mobile Gaming

At Cubix, we use the Unity video game engine to help our clients create powerful, high-performing mobile games. no matter if you’re an indie developer just getting started or a studio building your next big hit, Unity gives you everything you need to succeed.

If you’re planning to dive into mobile game development, your first step should be the Unity game engine download. With over 50% of mobile games already made using it, Unity is the industry standard you can trust, and Cubix is ready to bring your vision to life with it.

author

Cubix

Spanning a diverse range of content, our Editor keeps a close eye on all published materials while publishing and making edits to existing posts.

Category

Pull the Trigger!

Let’s bring your vision to life