š The Definitive Mobile Game Tech Market Map (May 2025 Edition)
Following the success of our AI x Gaming Market Map, Iām excited to present the Mobile Game Tech Market Map. This comprehensive overview highlights the key infrastructure and service providers that empower mobile game development, operations, and growth.
This map covers 12 categories, from game engines and backend services to ad mediation, customer support, and data infrastructure.
Whether you're a studio evaluating tools or an investor exploring the space, this map offers a concise overview of the most important players in the mobile game tech ecosystem.
You can also check market map updates in real-time by going directly to the GameMakers website and viewing them there.
Check it out! ššš
Below, we introduce each category and provide succinct overviews of the featured companies.
š§± Game Engines
Unity: The dominant engine for mobile games; widely adopted for its robust tooling, asset store, and cross-platform support.
Unreal Engine: Known for high-fidelity rendering, though less common in mobile than console/PC.
Cocos Creator: Lightweight and especially popular in Asia, great for 2D and casual games.
Godot: Open-source and growing rapidly among indie developers.
GameMaker: Accessible 2D engine, often used for pixel art and indie titles.
RPG Maker: Specialized for narrative-driven and 2D RPG-style games.
Construct3: Easy-to-use, browser-based game development platform focused on creating 2D games without extensive coding experience.
CryEngine: More PC/console focused, but occasionally used in high-end mobile projects.
Defold: Lightweight engine used for rapid prototyping and performance on lower-end devices.
PlayCanvas: Web-first engine with strong HTML5 capabilities.
Bevy: Rust-based, ECS-focused, early adoption among devs prioritizing performance.
O3DE: Open 3D Engine supported by the Linux Foundation, spun off from Amazonās Lumberyard.
š§ Backend Services
PlayFab: Microsoft's BaaS for multiplayer, economy, and analytics features.
AccelByte: Enterprise backend stack designed by ex-EA engineers.
Nakama: Open-source BaaS that supports multiplayer, chat, and live game logic.
Pragma: AAA-grade backend targeting multiplayer and live service games.
Backnd: Backend infrastructure aimed at mobile games with ease of integration.
Metaplay: Scalable backend targeting fast-paced mobile games, includes cheat prevention, liveops tooling, and analytics.
Beamable: Unity-native BaaS for live game features, focused on ease of use and rapid iteration.
LootLocker: Rapidly gaining popularity due to its easy-to-use APIs, player progression management, and inventory systems; especially loved by indie-to-mid-sized studios.
āļø Server Orchestration
Amazon GameLift: Managed multiplayer server hosting with autoscaling.
Agones: Open-source Kubernetes-native game server orchestrator.
Edgegap: Server orchestration and edge computing for low-latency play.
Hathora: Developer-focused server orchestration with fast boot times and global infrastructure.
Gameye: Orchestrator that handles game server scaling and deployment across regions.
Multiplay (Unity): Game server hosting and orchestration solution built for large-scale multiplayer.
Nitrado: Hosting provider often used by UGC and mod-heavy games.
š” Netcode
Photon: Widely used real-time multiplayer netcode service for mobile and casual games.
Unity Netcode: Unity's native solution for multiplayer, with both relay and transport layers.
Unreal Networking: Part of Unreal Engineās standard feature set.
Mirror: Open-source netcode solution for Unity developers.
DarkRift 2: High-performance server-based networking library for Unity.
FishNet: A modern Unity networking solution with strong community traction.
Normcore: Widely used for seamless multiplayer, especially popular for ease of implementation and low-latency performance.
Colyseus: Popular open-source server framework; particularly strong for scalable multiplayer.
š Data Visualization
Tableau: Enterprise-grade data visualization tool; less game-specific, but used by analytics teams.
Looker: Now owned by Google Cloud; good integration with BigQuery.
Mode: Collaborative analytics and visualization platform.
Sisense: Embedded analytics platform used by SaaS teams.
Power BI: Microsoftās analytics suite; good for studios on Azure or Microsoft stack.
Qlik Sense: Popular in business analytics, used by some large game ops teams.
DOMO: Cloud-native dashboarding and business intelligence.
Metabase: Open-source, developer-friendly dashboarding tool.
šļø Data Warehouse
Snowflake: Popular for scalable, pay-per-query cloud data warehousing.
Amazon Redshift: Deeply integrated with AWS and used widely in gaming analytics.
Google BigQuery: Scalable serverless warehouse with great performance for mobile analytics.
Databricks: Combines data lakes and warehousing; used for ML and data science teams.
Azure Synapse Analytics: Microsoftās solution for cloud-scale data processing.
ClickHouse: Very high-performance open-source OLAP database, rapidly gaining traction in mobile analytics due to real-time capabilities and efficiency at scale.
Teradata Vantage: Enterprise-focused, less common in mobile-first game studios.
š LiveOps (Analytics, CRM, Lifecycle)
Amplitude: Widely used product analytics platform for feature engagement and funnels.
Braze: Powerful customer engagement platform for push, in-app, and personalized CRM.
Mixpanel: Event-based analytics tool popular for retention and funnel tracking.
CleverTap: All-in-one analytics and lifecycle platform; strong in India/Asia.
Firebase: Googleās free analytics suite with strong developer integrations.
Unity Analytics: Very popular among mobile gaming studios for robust player segmentation and personalization.
GameAnalytics: Free analytics tailored specifically to mobile games.
Mitzu: Lightweight mobile game analytics platform offering easy-to-use A/B testing, segmentation, and retention tools.
devtodev: Game-focused analytics solution providing concise player engagement, monetization, and lifecycle insights.
š§° Customer Support
Helpshift ā An AI-powered, in-app support platform tailored for mobile games, offering features like automated issue classification and multilingual support.
Zendesk ā A comprehensive customer service solution that integrates AI to streamline support across multiple channels.
Intercom ā An AI-first customer service platform featuring Fin, an AI agent designed to deliver human-quality support experiences.
Freshdesk ā A user-friendly help desk solution with AI-powered features, enabling efficient ticket management and customer engagement.
šÆ MMPs (Attribution & UA Analytics)
AppsFlyer ā A leading mobile measurement partner providing comprehensive attribution and analytics solutions across various channels.
Adjust ā An end-to-end mobile marketing analytics platform that offers accurate attribution data and in-depth reporting.
Singular ā A next-generation MMP that unifies marketing data and provides cross-platform performance measurement.
Kochava ā An independent platform offering unified campaign performance tracking and fraud prevention tools.
Airbridge ā A mobile app analytics and attribution tool that provides a unified view of user behavior across web and app platforms.
Tenjin ā A mobile marketing analytics platform offering pay-as-you-grow attribution and analytics solutions, recently recognized as an official Meta MMP.
š§² Ad Mediation
AppLovin MAX ā An industry-leading mediation platform that maximizes revenue through in-app bidding and access to a wide range of demand sources.
Unity LevelPlay ā Unity's mediation solution that integrates seamlessly with the Unity Editor, providing transparency and control over ad monetization.
Google AdMob ā A widely-used ad mediation platform that serves ads from multiple sources, including the AdMob Network and third-party networks.
Chartboost Mediation ā A mediation platform providing access to premium demand sources and advanced optimization tools.
DT FairBid ā A mediation solution that offers real-time bidding and a unified auction to maximize ad revenue.
š³ Payments
Xsolla ā A comprehensive payment solution tailored for the gaming industry, offering tools for in-game purchases, subscriptions, and global payment processing.
PayPal ā A widely-used online payment system that supports secure transactions and is integrated into numerous gaming platforms.
Stripe ā A developer-friendly payment processing platform that enables businesses to accept payments online and in mobile apps.
Adyen ā A global payment company offering end-to-end payment solutions, including in-app and mobile payments.
Braintree ā A PayPal service providing mobile and web payment systems for e-commerce companies.
Paymentwall ā A global payments platform offering a wide range of local payment options for digital goods and services.
Razorpay ā An India-based payment solution offering a suite of products to accept, process, and disburse payments.
š D2C Web Shops
Xsolla ā Beyond payments, Xsolla provides tools for creating and managing direct-to-consumer web shops tailored for game developers.
appcharge ā A platform enabling mobile game developers to create branded web stores, enhancing user engagement and revenue.
NEON ā Offers a comprehensive solution for building and managing D2C storefronts, focusing on user experience and monetization.
Stash ā Provides tools for game developers to launch and manage their own web shops, focusing on customization and scalability.
Aghanim ā A platform dedicated to creating mobile-first D2C storefronts, emphasizing ease of use and integration.
Fungies ā An e-commerce platform designed for selling games and digital goods, offering customizable storefronts and payment solutions.
CODA Payments ā Specializes in providing alternative payment solutions and D2C services, particularly active in Southeast Asia and LATAM regions.
Terminal3 (Paymentwall) ā Customizable web shop platform with global payment support and integrated fraud, tax, and compliance tools.
Final Thoughts
Mobile games are powered by far more than just code and creativity. The infrastructure stack behind modern mobile game development ā from engine to payments ā is critical to success. We built this Mobile Game Tech Market Map to give you a fast, visual overview of the tools studios rely on to ship and scale successful mobile titles.
If youād like to suggest a vendor or request updates, please leave a comment on this post!