The Winners of 2023

What happened?

With the exception of Rising Star and Mobile Legend, both of which are decided by the PG Mobile Games Awards committee, the categories were voted on – for the first time in the awards’ six-year history – by the entire industry (previously this phase involved a select judging panel). Thousands of you logged your choice from a selection that recognised and celebrated the hard work of the teams and individuals that shone over the whole of last year.

Meanwhile, the Pocket Gamer People’s Choice Award was in the hands of the gamers themselves, with the nomination and voting process taking place entirely on our leading consumer site, Pocket Gamer.

The sixth annual Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards ceremony took place on Thursday, April 20, 2023.

It was once again hosted at BAFTA 195 Piccadilly, in central London.

Our congratulations to the winners, and our thanks to everyone who lobbied and voted this year!

The Winners of 2023

What happened?

Watch the highlights!

Thanks to our category sponsors…

And the winners are…

POCKET GAMER PEOPLE’S CHOICE

WINNER: Disney Mirrorverse

BEST ADVERTISING & UA

JOINT WINNERS:

• AppLovin • Unity Ads

This accolade is for companies that support the ecosystem through enabling user acquisition or monetisation through advertising and are helping to drive this fast-growing business in games and developers to acquire more users.

BEST ANALYTICS / DATA TOOL

WINNER: AppsFlyer

Any company that supports developers and publishers develop their games and run marketing campaigns through analytics tools and/or providing data on market performance.

BEST DEVELOPER

WINNER: Tripledot Studios

Any mobile games company with 11 or more staff that has released a game, or successfully grown an existing game, during 2022, as well as successfully expanded their business and made an impact on the industry through innovation, creativity and other initiatives.

BEST GAAS TOOLS & TECH

WINNER: Photon

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 special online features.

BEST AUDIO / VISUAL ACCOMPLISHMENT

WINNER: Candy Crush Saga

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 2022.

BEST GAME ENGINE / PLATFORM

WINNER: Unity

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

BEST STORYTELLING

WINNER: Star Trek: Lower Decks – The Badgey Directive

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 2022, or for titles released before this date have received significant new content in the last year.

RISING STAR

WINNER: Philippa Layburn

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.</3>

BEST TOOLS PROVIDER

WINNER: Unity (Unity Gaming Services)

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 – please see separate relevant category.)

BEST SERVICE PROVIDER

WINNER: Xsolla

This award is for any third-party service provider or outsourcer that supports developers in making games, whether through art, audio, trailers, UX, payment provision or other services.

BEST LIVE OPS

WINNER: Stumble Guys

This award recognises the impact of significant updates, in-game events or excellent community management in the last year for games released previously, that have helped take a game to the next level and sustain a title’s life.

BEST QA & LOCALISATION SERVICE PROVIDER

WINNER: TransPerfect Gaming Solutions

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.

BEST INDIE DEVELOPER

WINNER: Rusty Lake

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

BEST PR / MARKETING TEAM

WINNER: King (Candy Crush 10 Years of Fun campaign)

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.

BEST ATERNATIVE APP STORE

WINNER: AppGallery

As mobile continues its expansion into new markets and Google Play and Apple App Store open up a little, third-party app stores become ever more important part of the industry. This award celebrates the other portals that have done the most to grow during 2022.

INVESTMENT FUND OF THE YEAR

WINNER: Play Ventures

A recent addition to our roster, this award showcases an investment within the mobile games industry that has played a vital role in the success and growth of a company during 2022.

BEST PUBLISHER

WINNER: Scopely

Celebrating a company that has supported another developer in releasing a game on mobile devices during the last year, whether through publishing support, marketing, co-development or investment.

MOST PROMISING AI GAMES TECH

WINNER: Solsten

“Alexa, which company over the last year has consistently delivered the most impressive set of AI-assisted tools for mobile game creation?”

MOST IMPACTFUL WEB3 COMPANY

WINNER: Zebedee

New for 2023, this award recognises the company that has played the most active role in paving the road for the next World Wide Web.

GAME OF THE YEAR

JOINT WINNERS:

• Marvel Snap • Subway Surfers Tag

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.

MOBILE LEGEND

WINNER: Nour Khrais

This illustrious lifetime achievement award recognises a person from any mobile gaming territory who has achieved a considerable amount of success in their career and has acted as a pioneer in, and made an outstanding contribution to, the mobile games space.

Mobile Games Awards

On Twitter

• AppLovin
• Unity Ads

• Marvel Snap
• Subway Surfers Tag