Beatstar: Touch Your Music took home Game of the Year during the 5th annual Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards. The prestigious award ceremony celebrates the best businesses and individuals who are driving the $90 billion mobile games industry forward. This year’s event took place on April 5th at BAFTA 195 Piccadilly in central London.
In 23 categories, all except the Rising Star and Mobile Legend are voted for by a panel of industry judges. One of the reigning awards, the Pocket Gamers People’s Choice was chosen by the gaming community. This year, Cookie Run: Kingdom by Devsisters took the prize after being voted for by fans through PocketGamer.com. The accolades recognize the hard work of the teams and individuals that developed games completed in 2021.
The awards were presented by Steel Media CEO Chris James. “Considering how huge the mobile gaming business has become (over half the global games revenues in 2021), that is an increasingly challenging task and even being nominated in these circumstances suggests you’re doing something incredible,” he said during the event. The Steel Media created the Mobile Game Awards and has been hosting this event since 2018.
FINALISTS:
Pocket Gamer People’s Choice
- Alien: Isolation (Feral Interactive)
- Battlecruisers (Mecha Weka)
- Cookie Run: Kingdom (Devsisters)- WINNER
- Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins (Maze Theory)
- Fantasian (Mistwalker)
- Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier (Square Enix)
- Garena Free Fire MAX (Garena)
- Huntdown (Coffee Stain Publishing)
- League of Legends: Wild Rift (Riot Games)
- MasterChef: Let’s Cook! (Tilting Point)
- My Friend Pedro: Ripe For Revenge (Devolver)
- Northgard (Paydigious)
- Pokémon UNITE (The Pokemon Company)
- Retro Goal (New Star Games)
- Runestrike (Making Fun)
- RuPaul’s Drag Race Superstar (East Side Games)
- Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat (Bandai Namco)
- Tales of Luminaria (Bandai Namco)
- Tears of Themis (Cognosphere)
- Tetris Beat (N3twork)
Best Advertising & UA
This award is granted to companies that support the ecosystem through enabling user acquisition or monetization via advertising, and are helping games and developers in this fast-moving business to grow their audience.
- AdInMo
- Adverty
- AppLovin
- AudioMob
- Fyber
- HyprMX
- ironSource
- Meta Audience Network
- Mintegral
- Pangle
- Unity Ads- WINNER
- Zynga
Best Analytics/Data Tool
Any company that assists developers and publishers in developing their games and running marketing campaigns through analytics tools and/or providing data on market performance.
- Adjust
- AppsFlyer
- DeltaDNA by Unity
- Elixir by NumberEight
- Game IQ by data.ai
- GameAnalytics
- GameRefinery by Vungle
- SeeIt by Simpool
- Sensor Tower- WINNER
- Tilting Point Analytics Platform
Best Developer
Any mobile games company with 11 or more staff that has released a game, or successfully grown an existing game, during the last year, as well as expanded their business and made an impact on the industry through innovation, creativity and other initiatives.
- Devsisters
- East Side Games
- Gameloft Brisbane
- Garena
- miHoYo / HoYoverse
- Niantic
- Outplay Entertainment
- Pearl Abyss
- Rovio Entertainment
- Snowprint Studios
- Space Ape Games- WINNER
- Trailmix Limited
- Tripledot Studios
- ustwo games
Best GAAS Tools & Tech
This award recognises the companies that are supporting live games on the market through back-end services to ensure game servers run smoothly and help developers implement both special and crucial online features.
- Azure PlayFab
- ChilliConnect by Unity
- GamesSparks/ AWS GameTech- WINNER
- Gridly
- now.gg
- OpenBack
- Photon
- Tenjin
Best Audio/Visual Accomplishment
This accolade is for any game pushing the boundaries of the medium through audio and/or visual accomplishments. To be eligible for this award, games must have been given a full release (or received a significant and noteworthy expansion) during 2021.
- Beatstar – Touch Your Music (Space Ape Games)
- Blind Drive (Lo-Fi People)
- Bloodshore (Wales Interactive)
- Genshin Impact (HoYoverse)- WINNER
- Hitman Sniper: The Shadows (Square Enix Montreal)
- Inked: A Tale of Love (Pixmain)
- Lego Star Wars: Castaways (Gameloft)
- Revived Witch (Yostar Games)
- The Oregon Trail (Gameloft Brisbane)
- Unmaze (Upian)
Best Game Engine
This award is open to third-party tech companies that provide game engines that are instrumental in powering mobile games development.
- Blackspace (Pearl Abyss)
- Cocos Creator / Cocos2d-x
- Godot
- IdleKit (East Side Games)
- Unity- WINNER
- Lua (Roblox)
- Raylib
- Unreal Engine
Best Storytelling
This award recognises games that show stellar writing and narrative design. To be eligible for this award, games must have been given a full release during 2021, or for titles released before this date have received significant new content in the last year.
- Tetris Beat (N3twork)
- Alien: Isolation (Feral Interactive)- WINNER
- Bloodshore (Wales Interactive)
- Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins (Maze Theory)
- Five Dates (Wales Interactive)
- Alien: Isolation (Feral Interactive)- WINNER
- I Saw Black Clouds (Wales Interactive)
- Kathy Rain: Director’s Cut (Raw Fury)
- Marvel Hero Tales (Kuato Studios)
- NUTS (Joon, Pol, Muutsch, Char & Torfi)
- Overboard! (inkle)
- Recontact London: Cyber Puzzle (Recontact Games)
Rising Star
Winner: Karla Reyes
This special award recognises individuals from any corner of the globe who have demonstrated a considerable amount of success, influence, and impact despite their relatively recent arrival within the mobile games industry.
A new addition since 2020, this award is selected directly by the organization committee of the Mobile Games Awards. This special award recognises a person from any corner of the globe who has demonstrated a considerable amount of success, influence, and impact despite their relatively recent arrival within the mobile games industry.
Best Tools Provider
This award is open to any company providing dedicated tools for developers that assist in the creation of games for mobile platforms. (This does not include game engines.)
- Anzu.io
- AWS Game Teach- WINNER
- Beacon by Rovio
- Game UI Database
- Geeklab
- Ludo.ai
- PlaytestCloud
- Reality Gaming Group
- RichCast
- Simpool
- Tournament SDK by Gimmebreak (with Exit Games)
- Wappier
Best Recruitment Agency
Any recruitment agency that over the previous year has supported mobile game companies in finding and employing the best staff to develop new games, create new tools or offer key services.
- Aardvark Swift
- Amiqus- WINNER
- Datascope
- Expand
- Games Factory Talents
- Lovegrove Consulting
- OPMjobs
- Power Up Talent
Best Service Provider
This award is for any third-party service provider or outsourcer that supported developers in making games, whether through art, audio, trailers, UX, or other services.
- Agora
- Amber Studio
- Anzu.io
- GameBake
- Pollen VC
- PTW
- Xsolla- WINNER
- ZEBEDEE
Best Live Ops
This award recognises the impact of significant updates, in-game events or excellent community management over the last year for games released in 2021 or before, that have helped take a game to the next level and sustain a title’s life.
- AFK Arena (Lilith Games)
- Angry Birds Friends (Rovio Entertainment)
- Black Desert Mobile (Pearl Abyss)
- Subway Surfer (SYBO Games)- WINNER
- Clash Royale (Supercell)
- Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells (Zynga)
- Magic: The Gathering Arena (Wizards of the Coast)
- Marvel Contest of Champions (Kabam)
- PUBG Mobile (Tencent)
- Star Trek: Fleet Command (Scopely)
- State of Survival (FunPlus)
- Summoners War: Sky Arena (Com2uS)
Best QA & Localization Service Provider
This accolade awards companies that have supported mobile games over the last year in the areas of quality assurance and localisation, ensuring that both new releases and updates go live with as few hiccups as possible, and are localized appropriately for target markets.
- Amber Studio
- GameScribes
- Keywords Studios
- LocalizeDirectMoGi Group
- PTW
- TransPerfect- WINNER
- Quantic Lab
- Testronic
- Universally Speaking
Best Indie Developer
This accolade recognizes the achievements of a small team of developers that have released a game, or successfully grown an existing game, during the preceding year.
- Bontegames
- Dumpling Design
- GameTomo
- Humita
- Joon, Pol, Muutsch, Char & Torfi
- Kuyi Mobile
- inkle- WINNER
- Megapop Games
- Perchang
- Playbae
- Rikzu Games
- Silver Lining Studio
- Trefle & Co Game
Best PR/ Marketing Team
This award recognizes the best third-party PR agency or internal marketing team that has created campaigns fueling the growth of games over the last year. This can be through any medium, including online, TV or other.
- Big Games Machine
- Decibel-PR
- Dimoso
- Raptor PR
- Scopely
- Square Enix Montreal
- Swipe Right PR
- Tilting Point- WINNER
- ustwo games
- Wizards of the Coast
Best Influencer Marketing Agency
Successfully connecting brands with their target audience in an age of increased digital noise is no mean feat. This new award recognizes and celebrates the team that has managed its influencer outreach better than its competitors.
- AFK Creators
- GameInfluencer
- Kairos
- Knowscope
- Matchmade- WINNER
- Nativex
- Opera Event
- WeQ
Best Challenger App Store
As mobile continues its expansion into new markets, and Google Play and Apple App Store open up a little, third-party app stores become an evermore important part of the industry. This award celebrates the other portals that have done the most to grow and innovate during last year.
- Amazon Appstore
- Aptoide
- Geeklab
- Huawei AppGallery
- Samsung Galaxy Store- WINNER
- Mobango
- Opera Mobile Store
- TapTap
Investor of the Year
A new category since 2021, which aims to showcase either an investor or investment within the mobile games industry that has played a vital role in the success and growth of a company.
- 1Up Ventures
- Agnitio Capital
- Bill Shihara
- Bitkraft
- Hiro Capital
- LVP
- Play Ventures- WINNER
- Makers Fund
- MY.GAMES Venture Capital
- Wales Interactive
Best Publisher
Any company that has supported another developer in releasing a game on mobile devices during the preceding year, whether through publishing support, marketing, co-development or investment.
- Annapurna Interactive
- Gameloft
- HandyGames
- Jam City
- Kwalee- WINNER
- Miniclip
- MyGamez
- NetEase
- Netmarble
- Tamatem Games
- Tencent
- Tilting Point
- Voodoo
- Zynga
Best Innovation
Any developer or technology company that pushed the boundaries of what’s possible on mobile devices through a new technology, be it hardware or software. This could be an innovative tool, unique use of technology or approach that benefited the industry or audience as a whole.
- askblu.ai SaaS Platform
- GamesForest.Club- WINNER
- Creative Mobile Games Machine Learning
- Digital Asset Trading Platform by Reality Gaming Group
- Lego Advanced Procedural Pipeline by Gameloft Montreal
- MobileVoice by Tapjoy
- Mochi by Loveshark
- Online WorkSpace (OWS) by tiplay
- SimIt by Simpool
- Upland
- Playing for the Planet’s Green Game Jam- WINNER
- WAM.app
Game of the Year
This award recognizes the finest mobile gaming experience released last year based on creativity, play mechanics, technological, artistic and aural achievement, innovation, audience engagement, and both critical and commercial success. To be eligible for this award, games must have been given a full release during 2021.
- Another Eden (GREE)
- Beatstar- Touch Your Music (Space Ape Games)- WINNER
- Cookie Run: Kingdom (Devsisters)
- FarmVille 3 (Zynga)
- Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier (Square Enix)
- Garena Free Fire MAX (Garena)
- Hitman Sniper: The Shadows (Square Enix Montreal)
- Hundred Days – Winemaking Simulator (Broken Arm Games)
- Indies’ Lies (Playbest Games)
- Love & Pies – Merge (Trailmix)
- Magic: The Gathering Arena (Wizards of the Coast)
- Moncage (XD Network)
- Old Friends Dog Game (Runaway)
- One Hand Clapping (HandyGames)
- Overboard! (inkle)
- PUBG: New State (Krafton)
- Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales (Next Games)
- The Oregon Trail (Gameloft Brisbane)
- The Witcher: Monster Slayer (Spokko)
- Townscaper (Raw Fury)
Mobile Legend
Winner: Daniel Gray (ustwo games)
This special lifetime achievement award recognises a person from anywhere in the world who has achieved a considerable amount of success in their career and has acted as a pioneer in the mobile games space.
The Mobile Legend was a special award to recognize an outstanding contribution to the mobile games industry selected directly by the organization committee of the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards.