Last year most smartphones as we currently know have turned 10 years old. This anniversary was celebrated by Apple with the release of their flagship device, the iPhone X, that brought forth quite a few never-before-seen features, like its dented OLED screen, its Face ID, and wireless charging. A decade has passed since iPhone and iPad compatible gaming apps became a thing, so this is the perfect time to look back and be amazed at the amazing growth mobile gaming has seen in such a short time.

Although mobile games did exist before the advent of the iPhone, they weren’t a very big business. The vast majority of mobile games were simple puzzles with pixelated graphics perfect for killing a few minutes while waiting for the bus but not much more. But then it all changed when the iPhone came with its powerful hardware and big screen (powerful and big for that time, that is). Suddenly, the smartphone has become one of the most desirable gadgets and apps became the “new black”, as they say.

For a decade, the smartphone market has grown at an incredible pace. Today, there are 2.6 billion active smartphones in the world, with a further 300 million expected to be added to the pool before the end of 2018. Apps have become a big business, generating more than $56 billion in revenues last year alone.

One of the biggest smartphone businesses today is games. According to Newzoo, a leading market intelligence firm with a finger constantly on the pulse of the gaming industry, mobile gaming has become its single most valuable segment, generating the biggest chunk of the gaming business’s revenue in 2017. Although the numbers are not in just yet (they are usually revealed at the end of the fiscal year), Newzoo estimates that smartphone and tablet games together have generated more than 40% of the entire industry’s revenues, a total of $50.4 billion. Non-games apps have also generated a nice chunk of cash for their publishers in 2017, worth over $11 billion.

In addition Newzoo expects mobile gaming to continue to grow in the coming years. The number of active smartphones is expected to grow further with their spread to new growth markets in Asia and Africa. And, considering that the average smartphone user will install at least one mobile game within a week after buying a new smartphone (quite often much sooner), mobile games will continue to make big piles of cash for their publishers. How big, you might ask? Well, Newzoo expects mobile to be responsible for more than half of the global gaming industry’s revenues by the year 2020, up to a total of more than $72 billion. That, of course, if things continue as expected today.