Mobile games went mainstream in 1998, when Nokia put Snake on the 6110, and nearly every hit since has kept Snake’s formula: simple controls, short sessions and a score to beat. Carriers sold Java games in the early 2000s. The App Store’s launch in 2008 turned phones into a real game platform, and touch-screen hits like Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja and Candy Crush followed. Flappy Bird showed in 2013 and 2014 how far a single tap could go, Pokémon GO took games outdoors in 2016, and today casual games range from ad-supported arcade games to subscriptions and daily puzzles.
Mobile game history timeline #
| Year | What happened | Why it mattered |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Gremlin’s arcade game Blockade | The first snake-style game |
| 1998 | The Nokia 6110 ships with Snake preinstalled | Games on a phone go mainstream |
| 2000 | Snake II arrives on the Nokia 3310 | Phone games become a shared habit |
| 2003 | Nokia launches the N-Gage | An early, unsuccessful gaming phone |
| 2008 | Apple’s App Store opens, and the Android Market follows | Developers can sell straight to players |
| 2009 | Doodle Jump and Angry Birds | Tilt and touch become game controls |
| 2010 | Fruit Ninja and Cut the Rope | Swipes and physics puzzles take off |
| 2011 | Tiny Wings and Temple Run | One-touch and endless-runner hits |
| 2012 | Candy Crush Saga comes to phones, and Super Hexagon launches | Free-to-play puzzles and brutal arcade games |
| 2013 | Flappy Bird is released | One tap, one mistake, restart |
| 2014 | Flappy Bird is pulled, and Monument Valley and Crossy Road launch | Clone flood, and a new wave of polished casual games |
| 2016 | Pokémon GO | Location games reach a mass audience |
| 2018 to 2020 | Hypercasual games boom, and Among Us explodes in 2020 | Ultra-simple ad-funded games, and social deduction |
| 2019 | Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass | Subscriptions with no ads |
| 2021 to 2022 | Wordle goes viral and The New York Times buys it | The daily puzzle habit |
| 2024 | Balatro reaches phones, and the Flappy Bird name returns as a reboot | Indie hits and old names on mobile |
| 2025 | iOS 26 adds Apple’s Games app | Achievements and friends in one place |
Snake and the early phone era (1998 to 2007) #
The snake idea is older than mobile phones. It began with Blockade, a 1976 arcade game published by Gremlin Industries. Nokia’s version arrived on the Nokia 6110, which was announced at the end of 1997 and released in 1998, and it was the first Nokia phone with Snake preinstalled, according to Wikipedia’s Snake genre history. You steered with the number keys, your snake grew with every dot it ate, and you lost the moment it hit itself.
Snake worked because of its limits, not in spite of them. The screen was tiny and monochrome, and the keypad was clumsy, so the game had to be simple enough to learn in seconds and short enough to play while waiting for a bus. Snake II on the Nokia 3310 carried that habit into the 2000s, and comparing high scores with friends was the social network of the day.
In the early 2000s, color screens and Java let phones run downloadable games, sold through mobile carriers’ menus. They were hard to find, priced per download and built for dozens of different handsets. Nokia even tried a phone designed for games, the N-Gage, in 2003, but it didn’t catch on.
The App Store changes everything (2008 to 2012) #
When Apple opened the App Store in 2008, anyone could sell a game directly to millions of iPhone owners, and the touch screen became the controller. Google’s Android Market launched later the same year. Developers quickly worked out which gestures made good games:
- Tilt in Doodle Jump (2009), where you steered a jumping creature by tipping the phone.
- Drag and release in Angry Birds (2009), the slingshot physics game that became the era’s defining hit.
- Swipe in Fruit Ninja (2010) and Temple Run (2011).
- Hold in Tiny Wings (2011), where you held your finger down to dive and let go to fly.
Over the same few years, the business model shifted. Early App Store games mostly cost a dollar or two. By the early 2010s, free-to-play games with in-app purchases, led by Candy Crush Saga’s lives and boosters, had become the main way games made money. That shift still shapes everything you download today.
Flappy Bird and the one-tap moment (2013 to 2014) #
Dong Nguyen, a developer in Vietnam, made Flappy Bird in two to three days and released it on May 24, 2013. For months almost nobody noticed. Then, in January 2014, it shot to the top of the charts, fueled by videos of people losing their minds at it. It was earning around $50,000 a day from ads when Nguyen pulled it from the stores on February 10, 2014, saying it had become too addictive. We tell the full story in what happened to Flappy Bird.
Flappy Bird was Snake’s formula stripped even further: one input, instant failure, an instant restart and a score. Its disappearance set off a flood of clones, and the tap-to-fly genre it created has never gone away.
Big audiences and simpler games (2014 to 2020) #
The same year Flappy Bird vanished, two very different games showed where casual games could go. Monument Valley (2014) was a short, beautiful puzzle game you paid for once. Crossy Road (2014) was a free endless hopper with collectible characters and optional ads, which many players found fairer than the pay-to-progress games around it.
Pokémon GO in 2016 took games outside, using GPS and the camera to put creatures on real streets. Hypercasual games took the opposite route: ultra-simple one-tap games you learn in seconds, paid for almost entirely by ads. Our guide to hypercasual games covers how they work. Then, in 2020, Among Us, released two years earlier, became a worldwide craze while people were stuck at home.
Subscriptions, daily puzzles and indie hits (2019 to today) #
In 2019 Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass offered a different deal: pay a monthly fee and get games with no ads and no in-app purchases. In late 2021 Wordle turned a single daily puzzle into a global habit, and The New York Times bought it in early 2022. Indie hits kept arriving on phones too. Balatro, a poker-inspired game made by a single developer, reached iPhone and Android in 2024.
The Flappy Bird name came back in September 2024 as a reboot by a group that had acquired the trademark, with Nguyen saying he had nothing to do with it. And with iOS 26 in 2025, Apple added a Games app that gathers your games, achievements and friends in one place.
What hasn’t changed since Snake #
For all the new hardware, the casual games people keep coming back to share four traits with a 1998 Nokia:
- One simple input. Arrow keys, a tap, a swipe.
- Short sessions. A round fits into a queue or a coffee break.
- A number to beat. Your own best score is the goal.
- Easy to share. A high score, a screenshot or a row of colored squares.
If you want to play the classics today, our list of retro mobile games covers the best of them, and our rundown of the biggest viral mobile games follows each big hit to where it ended up.
Where does Flappy Kittens fit? #
Flappy Kittens (Flappy Cat on Google Play) is a modern take on the Flappy Bird formula. You still tap to flap through gaps, and one crash still ends the run. On top of that it adds the things mobile games learned in the decade since: fish treats to collect, combos up to ×8, power-ups like a shield and a slow-motion Cat Nap, and 14 cats and 8 worlds to earn. Its physics run on a fixed 120 Hz clock, so a tap behaves the same on any phone. It plays fully offline and is free with ads. For more games in the same line, see our list of games like Flappy Bird.
Frequently asked questions #
What was the first mobile phone game? #
Snake is the most famous early phone game and the one that made phone games mainstream. A few earlier phones had simple built-in games, but Nokia’s Snake reached far more people.
When did Snake come out on Nokia phones? #
It came preinstalled on the Nokia 6110, announced in December 1997 and released in 1998, the first Nokia phone to include it. Snake II followed on later models, including the Nokia 3310.
Why were early mobile games so simple? #
Early phones had tiny screens, number keypads and very little memory or battery to spare. Games had to be easy to control with a few keys and quick to play, which is also why they were so easy to pick up.
Is the original Flappy Bird still available? #
No. Dong Nguyen removed it from the App Store and Google Play in February 2014, and it has never returned in its original form. The Flappy Bird on stores today is a 2024 reboot by a different group.
What are hypercasual games? #
They’re ultra-simple mobile games, often controlled with one tap, that you can learn in seconds. Most are free and paid for by ads, and they boomed in the late 2010s.