2018 brought us a lot of mobile games that are worth your attention. Notably, we got The Room: Old Sins, the third sequel of a legendary puzzle franchise, Reigns: Game of Thrones based on the hyped TV series, and Old School RuneScape, the highest-rated mobile game of 2018 by Metacritic users.

Meanwhile, the main trend of the last years is the mass AAA games migration from PC to mobile devices. This year, the brightest examples of top PC games migrated to iOS are PUBG Mobile, Fortnite, and Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition.

2019 promises to be even more delicious. A lot of titles will be released on PC and mobile simultaneously. All games on our list are not less sophisticated than their PC analogs — mobile gaming is closer than ever to the desktop one.

So what are today’s heroes? Please welcome 5 most popular iOS games to expect in 2019.

Diablo Immortal
Developer: NetEase
Publisher: Activision Blizzard
Genre: MMORPG
Expectation Rate: 1.4 out of 10
Expectation rates for all the games are sourced from Gamepressure.

Blizzard and NetEase collaboratively announced an upcoming MMORPG for iOS and Android. The game plot unfolds between the events of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction and Diablo III.

We usually tell you about the games that have at least potential to succeed. But in the case of Diablo Immortal, it’s the other way around. The title is gaining fame by notoriety: gamers are actively booing its announcement trailer. It earned 637 thousand dislikes on YouTube as opposed to only 25 thousand likes, what makes it a video with one of the worst like/dislike ratio in YouTube’s history. Some even sincerely hope Diablo Immortal fails.

What did hurt Diablo fans so much that they don’t want Immortal to sell well? Most of them deemed that Diablo Immortal is going to replace Diablo IV as there is still no word about the 4th PC game in the series. Blizzard followers consider themselves PC gamers, so they don’t need a mobile “re-skin” of their favorite game.

House Flipper
Developer: Empyrean
Publisher: PlayWay
Genre: Simulation
Estimated Date of Release: March 2019
Expectation Rate: 6.6 out of 10

House Flipper is a one-of-a-kind renovation simulator that has already become a bestseller on Steam, regardless of being produced by a little-known Polish indie developer. In this game, you play as a young entrepreneur who buys nearly destroyed houses, renovates them, and sells them to the new dwellers. And this is not another staff management game! You literally pick up all the gear and do repair job by yourself.

The game has been available to play on PC since May 2018. However, Empyrean and PlayWay plan to launch the title on other platforms including PS4, XBox One, Android, and iOS in March 2019.
 

Overland
Developer: Finji
Publisher: Finji
Genre: Survival strategy
Expectation Rate: 7.5 out of 10

Do you recall Mad Max where you need to drive through a Wasteland presumably located in post-apocalyptic Australia? Overland is a less actionable, more tactical survival game that similarly brings you on the North American roads devastated by an unspecified disaster.

All events take place on small maps, where you need to make tough decisions and interact with objects in a turn-based mode. You’ll be constantly stressed due to lack of fuel, supplies, and weapons. However, the shortage of vital resources is not your primary death threat. As any other post-apocalyptic survival, Overland features creepy creatures you need to fight.
 

PayDay: Crime War
Developer: Cmune
Publisher: Starbreeze AB
Genre: Cooperative 1st-person shooter
Expectation Rate: 9.1 out of 10

Ready to rob your first bank via mobile phone? If you like adventures of that kind, we strongly recommend you to download PayDay: Crime War when it will be available for iOS. But if you want to be on the “good” side, there is an option for you. This title is the first one in PayDay series that allows you to play for the law enforcement team.

Matches remain similar to PayDay 2 and represent 4x4 clashes involving cops and robbers. The robbery gang chooses the contract with specific objectives (for example, rob a jewelry store, capture a vehicle, or even cook meth and escape with it) and proceeds to the mission accomplishment. The police try to prevent robbers from hitting the target.

Worth noting, that the primary developer of PayDay: Crime War is Cmune, while the founding fathers from Overkill are only supervising the creation process.

Alaskan Truck Simulator
Developer: Movie Games
Publisher: PlayWay
Genre: Simulation/Survival 
Expectation Rate: 10 out of 10

Why make this, if we already have American Truck Simulator, the benchmark for truck games? But to be fair, there is still room for scaling. Both Euro and American Truck Simulators are limited to driving, staff management, and business development. The driver looks like a robot that spends the whole life in the truck, what makes gameplay quite monotonous after a few tens of rides.

Alaskan Truck Simulator aims at changing the situation. Now you deliver cargo encountering harsh environmental conditions of the American North. Leaving the car becomes not a new gaming opportunity, but a vital need. You will hunt for food, seek supplies, and craft gear in order to survive.

This Alaskan journey on the big wheel seems to be promising. And its main advantage over ATS and ETS series is that it comes for mobile, too.

Will These Games Be Free or Paid?

According to the Mobile Gaming Report, you have to pay for the download of only 17% of the mobile games.

Pay-per-download monetization model is a downtrend of a recent decade, so we suppose that at least 3 out of 5 games will be free to play. Even House Flipper that costs $19.99 on Steam may come free but with in-app purchases or advertising. The majority of gaming manufacturers monetize their apps choosing between these two strategies or combining them.

Also, some developers release very simple yet addictive spin-off games based on their well-known triple-A projects. Exploiting its big name, they create an additional stream of revenue. For example, Bethesda created Fallout: Shelter — a shelter simulation initially available only for mobile. The game was mostly targeted at Fallout fans already aware of the background. Even though it’s a free game with affordable in-app purchases, it brought Bethesda $5.1M within first two weeks after its release.

But regardless of the chosen monetization method, there is a good chance we’ll get a bunch of addictive games to discover in Apple AppStore. Besides, paid mobile titles are much more affordable than their desktop counterparts. For example, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is currently sold for only $6.99 on AppStore, what’s not that much for such a resounding title.