How are the must-have mobile games from ten years ago faring today? | Discover Great Games to Play
Text by Ma Xiaodi
Edited by Guofu
Nearly a month has passed since the summer vacation of 2025 ended, and students have all returned to campus life.
This summer, teenagers may have just taken off their lightweight MR glasses, ending an adventure in a world where the real and virtual blend; or they may have just closed the dialogue window with their AI virtual companions - these companions can not only answer questions fluently but also provide delicate emotional support; or they may have just finished a high - frame - rate, full - special - effects large - scale competitive mobile game, enjoying audio - visual and interactive experiences that were unimaginable a decade ago.
Of course, a large number of people were more immersed in multi - platform games, such as Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, Delta Squad, etc.
Some people may occasionally recall that more than a decade ago, in the early days of mobile games, the situation was completely different. At that time, smartphones were just becoming popular, and mobile games began to enter the public eye. There were neither large - scale mobile games that could easily take up dozens of gigabytes of storage like today, nor were there many open - world games with huge volumes. Casual, parkour, and puzzle games became must - have apps on every phone because of their easy - to - learn nature, high entertainment value, and compatibility with touchscreens.
They had simple gameplay but were extremely addictive. Together, they formed the enlightenment of mobile games in the early days of the mobile Internet and became an unforgettable "white moonlight" in the hearts of the entire post - 90s generation.
Mobile games that were must - haves on phones a decade ago
Occasionally, when sorting through old phones or photo albums and catching a glimpse of those familiar game pictures, do you still wonder how these "white moonlights" that influenced an entire generation are doing today?
The "Flourishing" Mobile Games in the Early Days of the Mobile Internet
In the early days of smartphone popularity, the mobile game market was in full bloom, and many classic game categories that defined the era emerged, such as exciting parkour action games, strategy - focused tower defense games, and puzzle games that combined intelligence and fun.
Parkour action games were one of the most widely spread categories. Usually, players only needed one or two fingers to complete all operations. The operation threshold was low, and the instant feedback was strong. The infinitely randomly generated levels could always keep players on edge. The final scores of each game could also stimulate the competitive spirit among players, thus promoting the spread of the game. This was a prototype of the "leaderboard" in early mobile games.
The phenomenon - level game Temple Run, which was released in 2012, was a classic example. In addition to the regular up, down, left, and right swipes, it also introduced the gyroscope function of the phone, allowing players to tilt the phone to control the character to collect coins. If the tilt was too extreme, the character would even fall off the path, resulting in game over. With these novel and interesting designs, as early as 2014, the cumulative global downloads of this game series had exceeded one billion, becoming a milestone in the early development of parkour games.
The home page of Temple Run 2
When talking about parkour games, Subway Surfers, which was released around the same time, cannot be ignored. Compared with Temple Run, Subway Surfers chose a more recognizable animation style, integrated street themes, and further simplified the game operations through the "three - line track switching" mechanism. At that time, the game's downloads exceeded 100 million just eight months after its launch, and both its daily and monthly active users were maintained at the tens of millions level.
Subway Surfers
Of course, the above two are 3D parkour games. 2D parkour games also had their place in the market at that time.
For example, Ski Safari was set against the background of an avalanche and creatively integrated designs such as "riding animals" and "fancy skiing". Players only needed to tap with one finger to complete all operations.
Daily Run, launched by Tencent, was similar. Players only needed to click to jump or slide to complete the operations. The difference was that Tencent knew better how to do a good job in "player social interaction" and long - term operation, and how to make score competition more intuitive. They introduced elements such as mounts, pets, and character cultivation into the game and directly built an integrated score leaderboard, constructing a more systematic light - social game ecosystem.
Daily Run
Looking back now, Daily Run was able to top the best - selling list on the first day and achieve 30 million daily active users because it quickly launched a mature product and caught the wave of parkour games. After all, in the following years, the decline of parkour games was obvious to all.
Almost at the same time as the popularity of parkour games, a relatively casual type of game that emphasized strategic layout and defense experience - tower defense games - also became popular. They often attracted a large number of non - hardcore players with their cartoonish art styles, moderate mental challenges, and gradually increasing level difficulties.
Everyone must have heard of Plants vs. Zombies. It successfully integrated card collection, tower defense layout, and multi - mode gameplay, and conquered players around the world with its humorous style and creative settings. Another domestic representative work, Defend the Radish, with its fresher cute art style, fast - paced rhythm, and light - strategy design that incorporated obstacle clearance, became a permanent app on many users' phones. It set a record of one million downloads on the first day and won the award for the best mobile single - player game in 2012.
The game interface of Defend the Radish
In the field of puzzle games, many products stood out with their unique physical mechanisms and creative gameplay. Angry Birds built a world full of fun and challenges where birds fought against green pigs based on the slingshot operation and physical destruction feedback. Its global downloads exceeded one billion early on, becoming one of the symbols of the early days of mobile games.
Angry Birds
Cut the Rope designed puzzle levels that required players to skillfully use physical laws through the extremely simple goal of "cutting the rope to guide the candy into the mouth" and combined mechanisms such as bubbles, gears, and portals. Its downloads exceeded 100 million within a year. Where's My Water? took a different approach, with fluid physics simulation as the core. Players solved puzzles by digging sand to divert water, showing Disney's creative ability in mobile game design.
Happy Match, as a classic representative of the match - three game category, successfully attracted a large number of female players and general users with its cute art style, gradually increasing level difficulties, and light - social leaderboard design. Its well - designed level mechanisms and continuous content updates over the years have made it go beyond the scope of casual games and become a daily light - social and entertainment habit. It still maintains considerable vitality and user activity to this day.
The reason why these early mobile games were able to quickly conquer a large number of users was inseparable from several common core design principles: extremely simple operation logic, strong instant feedback, and extremely low entry thresholds. Their success was not accidental but precisely targeted the user habits and technical conditions during the early days of mobile device popularity.
Extremely simple operation logic meant that players did not need to learn complex instructions. They could complete all actions with a single - finger swipe, click, or tap. This design not only perfectly adapted to the intuitive interaction of touchscreens but also greatly reduced the psychological burden of operation. Temple Run and Subway Surfers only required players to swipe up, down, left, or right with one finger, and even Ski Safari could be fully operated with just "tap control".
Strong instant feedback further enhanced the attractiveness and stickiness of the games. Every action of the player was accompanied by a clear result: the shining light when collecting coins, the crisp music when a match was successful, the explosive juice special effects when cutting fruits, the slowdown of the parkour speed after a mistake... This almost zero - delay response built a strong positive feedback loop, constantly stimulating players to pursue higher scores and "play one more round".
The extremely low entry threshold covered multiple levels, including hardware, cognition, and emotion. Limited by the devices and technology at that time, most of these games were small in size and widely compatible, and could run smoothly on most devices. The gameplay rules were clear at a glance, and players could start playing directly without tutorials. The themes were light - hearted, and the art styles were friendly, making them acceptable to people of all ages and cultural backgrounds. Unlike traditional large - scale games that required players to invest a lot of time, energy, or learning costs, these games became ideal companions for people during fragmented time such as waiting for a bus, standing in a queue, or during breaks.
It was the combination of these three factors that enabled early mobile games to reach a much wider audience than traditional game players, including children, the elderly, and people who originally did not play games, thus creating a collective memory of an era.
Why Is It Difficult to Replicate the Classics?
Ten years later, the games that once succeeded with common principles such as extremely simple operations, instant feedback, and low thresholds have faced very different fates. In this transformation, some products have stood firm through continuous evolution, while more products have been gradually marginalized because they cannot adapt to internal contradictions and external challenges.
All products are facing several severe new realities.
Firstly, there has been an upgrade in technology development and player needs. The performance of smartphones has already approached that of early game consoles. Players are no longer satisfied with simply filling their fragmented time. Instead, they pursue the immersive, highly - social, and content - rich in - depth experiences provided by games like Genshin Impact and Honor of Kings. With the increasing functions of smartphones, the market space for light - casual games has been gradually squeezed by other forms of entertainment such as short - video content.
In other words, "casual games" are no longer the only solution for many general users to seek happiness on their smartphones. They need other stronger driving forces for their needs.
A deeper - level challenge comes from the commercialization dilemma. These games generally have the problem of "high activity but low payment". To increase revenue, many products have introduced paid points based on strength values, but this often destroys the original fairness and core fun of the game, leading to user loss. How to establish a sustainable business model that does not damage the gameplay experience has become a common problem for them.
In addition, the change in the customer - acquisition environment has completely hindered the rise of new products. In the past, excellent products could stand out in the app store with natural traffic. However, in today's platform era, traffic is monopolized by the capital of major platforms, and the extremely high cost of buying traffic has become a substantial barrier. Even if a product with the same creative level as the once - popular works appears, it may remain unknown because it cannot afford the promotion costs.
The most fatal thing is that the emerging form of "mini - games" has almost perfectly solved the problems faced by the above - mentioned games. Products such as Idle Slayer and Sheep a Sheep have emerged one after another. However, two years later, these approaches seem to have become ineffective again.
Facing the same challenges, different old products have gradually diverged in their fates due to differences in their own strategies and foundations.
Long - lasting games not only survive but also maintain a good operating state. The key reason is that they have gone beyond the scope of simple games and evolved into a continuous service or cultural symbol. Take Subway Surfers as an example. As the "unique one" after the "flourishing" era of parkour games, by 2025, its cumulative global downloads had exceeded four billion, and its ranking in the iOS game list in the past year had been stably within the top 20.
The iOS ranking of Subway Surfers in the past year
Since 2013, it has continuously launched new maps and themes through the "World Tour" mode to maintain the freshness of the content. So far, it has updated more than a hundred cities, attracting players from all over the world.
More importantly, it successfully combined with the short - video trend. In 2022, Subway Surfers became popular again because of a speed - running gameplay called the "No - Coin Challenge". Players had to avoid coins deliberately while avoiding obstacles, with the goal of surviving for the longest time. This challenge originated in Brazil through platforms such as TikTok and quickly spread globally, driving more than 20,000 players to participate in the competition on the speed - running website Speedrun, with the highest record approaching 10 minutes.
