Why Modern Mobile Games Feel So Hard to Put Down: The Science of Reward Loops

Mobile gaming makes buckets of money for developers and publishers, with around 3 billion people regularly firing up interactive entertainment on their chosen smartphone. Revenues from this market aren’t just down to good game design, as mobile titles tend to be built with player retention as a top priority.

A few psychological tricks are used regularly, with the main goal of building reward loops that make people feel compelled to keep coming back for more whenever they have a spare moment. Let’s discuss what makes mobile games so addictive, and what this means for the player experience.

The Building Blocks of Unputdownable Mobile Games

The ‘reward loop’ at the heart of many mobile games is superficially simple. Launching the game is triggered, perhaps by a push notification. The actions taken in the game are simple and undemanding, whether that’s tapping the screen to jump in an autorunner or matching multicolored tiles in a basic puzzler. From here, the rewards roll in, typically taking the form of audiovisual cues that signify progress or success.

This loop takes inspiration from games of chance, but has been embraced across all mobile gaming genres. The slots games available at the official Impressario Casino provide the perfect example of this. When a player initiates a spin, they’re greeted by fun animations and zingy sound effects, whether or not they win or lose.

In turn, developers incorporate unpredictability into this loop, again drawing on what casinos do to keep players engaged. Rewards don’t come with every interaction or gameplay session. Instead, they’re metered out and can occur randomly, such as in the form of a rare equipment drop or a loot box unlock.

Long Term Planning

The moment-to-moment reward loop in mobile games is just part of a wider strategy to prevent players from quitting. Top-performing titles factor in long term reward cycles to play on the fear of missing out (FOMO) which we all experience.

For instance, incentivizing daily logins by offering a bonus for launching the game is common practice. Likewise, many mobile games have time-limited events, perhaps associated with a specific public holiday or inspired by a new content drop, that hook returning players back in, even if they’ve dropped off in the interim.

The Skill Curve Trick

Mobile games that require a degree of skill, rather than mindless screen-tapping, offer a different way to preserve player engagement. Initially, as new players learn the basics, rewards and achievements flow thick and fast. Then, once they’re deeper into the game, the gaps between them become bigger and bigger, by which point players have the incentive to keep grinding because they want to revisit that dopamine hit that came early on.

In other words, mobile games can make it feel like you’ve become very skilled in a short time frame, then leave you forever chasing recognition and accolades.

The Player Impact

While mobile games may be built around potentially problematic design choices, players do have control in this context. If you treat them as short bursts of entertainment, playing in a break from work, rather than plowing hours into them every evening, you can beat the psychological tricks they use. Now that you’re wise to the science, nothing is stopping you from making the most of mobile games.