The Winners of 2022

POCKET GAMER PEOPLE’S CHOICE

WINNER: Cookie Run: Kingdom (Devsisters)

This is the only award nominated by and voted for by consumers, and recognises the best new game to have received a full release during the previous year. The People’s Choice Award runs both its submission and voting phases through PocketGamer.com, with the winner revealed on the night of the ceremony.

FINALISTS:

• Alien: Isolation (Feral Interactive)
• Battlecruisers (Mecha Weka)
• 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

WINNER: Unity Ads

This accolade is for companies that support the ecosystem through enabling user acquisition or monetisation via advertising, and are helping games and developers in this fast-moving business to grow their audience.

FINALISTS:

• AdInMo
• Adverty
• AppLovin
• AudioMob
• Fyber
• HyprMX
• ironSource
• Meta Audience Network
• Mintegral
• Pangle
• Zynga

BEST ANALYTICS / DATA TOOL

WINNER: Sensor Tower

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.

FINALISTS:

• Adjust
• AppsFlyer
• DeltaDNA by Unity
• Elixir by NumberEight
• Game IQ by data.ai
• GameAnalytics
• GameRefinery by Vungle
• SeeIt by Simpool
• Tilting Point Analytics Platform

SPONSORED BY

BEST DEVELOPER

WINNER: Space Ape Games

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.

FINALISTS:

• Devsisters
• East Side Games
• Gameloft Brisbane
• Garena
• miHoYo / HoYoverse
• Niantic
• Outplay Entertainment
• Pearl Abyss
• Rovio Entertainment
• Snowprint Studios
• Trailmix Limited
• Tripledot Studios
• ustwo games

BEST GAAS TOOLS & TECH

WINNER: GameSparks / AWS GameTech

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.

FINALISTS:

• Azure PlayFab
• ChilliConnect by Unity
• Gridly
• now.gg
• OpenBack
• Photon
• Tenjin

BEST AUDIO / VISUAL ACCOMPLISHMENT

WINNER: Genshin Impact (HoYoverse)

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.

FINALISTS:

• Beatstar – Touch Your Music (Space Ape Games)
• Blind Drive (Lo-Fi People)
• Bloodshore (Wales Interactive)
• 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

WINNER: Unity

This award is open to third-party tech companies that provide game engines that are instrumental in powering mobile games development.

FINALISTS:

• Blackspace (Pearl Abyss)
• Cocos Creator / Cocos2d-x
• Godot
• IdleKit (East Side Games)
• Lua (Roblox)
• Raylib
• Unreal Engine

BEST STORYTELLING

WINNERS:

• Alien: Isolation (Feral Interactive)
• The Oregon Trail (Gameloft Brisbane)

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.

FINALISTS:

• Tetris Beat (N3twork)
• Bloodshore (Wales Interactive)
• Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins (Maze Theory)
• Five Dates (Wales Interactive)
• 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 organisation 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

WINNER: AWS GameTech

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.)

FINALISTS:

• Anzu.io
• 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

WINNER: Amiqus

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.

FINALISTS:

• Aardvark Swift
• Datascope
• Expand
• Games Factory Talents
• Lovegrove Consulting
• OPMjobs
• Power Up Talent

BEST SERVICE PROVIDER

WINNER: Xsolla

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.

FINALISTS:

• Agora
• Amber Studio
• Anzu.io
• GameBake
• Pollen VC
• PTW
• ZEBEDEE

BEST LIVE OPS

WINNER: Subway Surfers (SYBO Games)

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.

FINALISTS:

• AFK Arena (Lilith Games)
• Angry Birds Friends (Rovio Entertainment)
• Black Desert Mobile (Pearl Abyss)
• 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 & LOCALISATION SERVICE PROVIDER

WINNER: TransPerfect

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 localised appropriately for target markets.

FINALISTS:

• Amber Studio
• GameScribes
• Keywords Studios
• LocalizeDirectMoGi Group
• PTW
• Quantic Lab
• Testronic
• Universally Speaking

SPONSORED BY

BEST INDIE DEVELOPER

WINNER: inkle

This accolade recognises the achievements of a small team of developers that have released a game, or successfully grown an existing game, during the preceding year.

FINALISTS:

• Bontegames
• Dumpling Design
• GameTomo
• Humita
• Joon, Pol, Muutsch, Char & Torfi
• Kuyi Mobile
• Megapop Games
• Perchang
• Playbae
• Rikzu Games
• Silver Lining Studio
• Trefle & Co Game

BEST PR / MARKETING TEAM

WINNER: Tilting Point

This award recognises the best third-party PR agency or internal marketing team that has created campaigns fuelling the growth of games over the last year. This can be through any medium, including online, TV or other.

FINALISTS:

• Big Games Machine
• Decibel-PR
• Dimoso
• Raptor PR
• Scopely
• Square Enix Montreal
• Swipe Right PR
• ustwo games
• Wizards of the Coast

SPONSORED BY

BEST INFLUENCER MARKETING AGENCY

WINNER: Matchmade

Successfully connecting brands with their target audience in an age of increased digital noise is no mean feat. This new award recognises and celebrates the team that has managed its influencer outreach better than its competitors.

FINALISTS:

• AFK Creators
• GameInfluencer
• Kairos
• Knowscope
• Nativex
• Opera Event
• WeQ

BEST CHALLENGER APP STORE

WINNER: Samsung Galaxy 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.

FINALISTS:

• Amazon Appstore
• Aptoide
• Geeklab
• Huawei AppGallery
• Mobango
• Opera Mobile Store
• TapTap

INVESTOR OF THE YEAR

WINNER: Play Ventures

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.

FINALISTS:

• 1Up Ventures
• Agnitio Capital
• Bill Shihara
• Bitkraft
• Hiro Capital
• LVP
• Makers Fund
• MY.GAMES Venture Capital
• Wales Interactive

BEST PUBLISHER

WINNER: Kwalee

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.

FINALISTS:

• Annapurna Interactive
• Gameloft
• HandyGames
• Jam City
• Miniclip
• MyGamez
• NetEase
• Netmarble
• Tamatem Games
• Tencent
• Tilting Point
• Voodoo
• Zynga

BEST INNOVATION

WINNERS:

• GamesForest.Club
• Playing for the Planet’s Green Game Jam

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.

FINALISTS:

• askblu.ai SaaS Platform
• 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
• WAM.app

SPONSORED BY

GAME OF THE YEAR

WINNER: Beatstar – Touch Your Music (Space Ape Games)

This award recognises 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.

FINALISTS:

• Another Eden (GREE)
• 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 recognise an outstanding contribution to the mobile games industry selected directly by the organisation committee of the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards.