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Choose the Pocket Gamer Awards category that best describes what players mainly do in your game and why the game stands out. Genre categories reward the dominant play experience; update, community, innovation and ongoing-play categories reward a specific achievement or lasting impact. Check the award-year rules before submitting because release windows and category names change.
What the Pocket Gamer Awards recognise
The Pocket Gamer Awards are fan-voted awards for mobile games, organised through a three-stage process. Industry experts organise the programme and assemble the initial longlist. Fan voting then produces a shortlist, and winners are announced at a later ceremony. The awards are therefore different from an editorial review: your nomination must be easy for ordinary players to understand and support.
Do not confuse these awards with the Mobile Games Awards run by PocketGamer.biz. The Pocket Gamer Awards focus on games and game experiences, while the Mobile Games Awards recognise behind-the-scenes industry talent. A studio may be relevant to both programmes, but the category logic is not interchangeable.
Release windows and changing rules
For the 12th Awards, a new release had to launch between 1 October 2024 and 30 September 2025. The 2027 awards page uses a new-release window of 1 October 2025 through 30 September 2026. Those dates apply to the editions that state them; they are not a permanent definition of eligibility.
#1 Best Overall
- WIDE SCREEN COMPATIBILITY — PHONE TO TABLET: X5 Lite is a versatile phone controller that stretches up to 213mm to fit iPhone 15/16, most Android phones, iPad mini 6/7, and compatible Android tablets. Secure Type-C connection keeps gameplay stable and responsive.
- MOBILE, CLOUD & REMOTE GAMING: Play supported mobile games like Zenless Zone Zero, or stream console and PC games through Xbox Game Pass, Steam Link, Moonlight, and remote play. Enjoy physical controls wherever you play.
- HALL EFFECT STICKS — PRECISE CONTROL: GameSir Hall Effect sensing sticks deliver smooth 360° control for accurate aiming, movement, and camera adjustments. Built for fast-paced mobile games and streamed console or PC titles.
- LIGHTWEIGHT & ERGONOMIC — 135.4G: At just 135.4g, X5 Lite stays lightweight during extended gaming. Ergonomic, laser-engraved textured grips provide a secure, comfortable hold at home or on the go.
- CUSHIONED MEMBRANE CONTROLS — COMFORTABLE & QUIETER: Cushioned membrane buttons and triggers provide comfortable feedback for repeated inputs while keeping operation quieter. Ideal for extended sessions or gaming in shared spaces.
Some categories can draw on the wider mobile-game back catalogue. The 2027 category list explicitly retains awards such as Best Character, Best Game We’re Still Playing, Best Community, Best Webshop, Best Game Update and Best In-Game Collab. Because the list and eligibility rules can change annually, verify the current award-year page before you nominate an older title, an update or a live-service game.
A fast way to find the right category
Start with the game’s primary loop: the action players repeat most often to make progress. Then identify the reason your game deserves attention. Use this sequence before looking at category names:
| Question | What a “yes” suggests |
|---|---|
| What do players do most of the time? | Use the genre category that describes that activity, such as puzzle solving, combat, racing or management. |
| Is a particular skill the main challenge? | Reflexes and execution point toward Action or Platform; planning and trade-offs point toward Strategy or SLG/Simulation. |
| Are quests, builds and character progression the structure? | Best Mobile RPG is usually a closer fit than a broad action label. |
| Is player-versus-player or co-operative play essential? | Consider Best Multiplayer Mobile Game when multiplayer is central rather than an optional mode. |
| Is the strongest story about continued support or longevity? | Consider Best Game Update, Updated Game of the Year, Best Game We’re Still Playing or Best Community. |
| Is the distinction a new interaction, technology use or mobile-native idea? | Best Mobile Innovation may fit better than a conventional genre award. |
| Is the evidence a company’s whole catalogue? | Use Best Mobile Publisher or Best Mobile Developer, not a single-game genre category. |
| Is the title unreleased? | Most Anticipated Game is the relevant route; a released game should compete as a release or through an ongoing-work category. |
A game can have several valid descriptions. Pick the category for which you can make the clearest, strongest case using the game’s dominant playtime, principal skill and most recognisable feature.
Genre categories: match the dominant player experience
Best Mobile Puzzle Game
Choose this when solving puzzles is the core loop and the main source of challenge. The puzzle may involve logic, spatial reasoning, matching, deduction or another form of problem solving; the important point is that players spend their time thinking through puzzles rather than merely encountering them between other activities. Explain the signature puzzle mechanic and why it remains engaging.
Best Mobile Action Game
Use this category for reflex-driven combat, shooting, fighting or action traversal where moment-to-moment execution is central. Describe what players must do under pressure: aim, dodge, chain attacks, react to changing threats or navigate active encounters. If the game’s defining achievement is instead long-term character building or strategic planning, an RPG or Strategy category may make a more accurate case.
Rank #2
- Bluetooth Controller for iPhone & Android: Mocagen mobile gaming controller Compatible with all iPhone models (including 18/17 series) and Android devices. Pairing steps: 1. Turn on Bluetooth on your phone and go to the pairing screen. 2. Press and hold the Home button for 3 sec until LED4 flashes. 3. Find "XBOX Wireless Controller" on your phone and tap to pair. Quick reconnect: After first pairing, simply press the Home button once (with Bluetooth on) to reconnect
- Play Most Controller-Compatible Games: This iPhone game controller supports cloud gaming (e.g., Xb*x Game Pass, GeForce NOW), Xbox Remote Play, emulator games, and native mobile games (e.g., Apple Arcade). Enjoy effortless control and play Fortnite, Call of Duty, Roblox, Genshin Impact, and many more anytime, anywhere. Note: Controller only works with games that support controller input, and does not support PS Remote Play
- 5M-Cycle Lifespan & Zero Drift: MC1 mobile gaming controller features a Hall-effect joystick with a 5M cycle lifespan, 2.5x longer than standard carbon-film sticks. Its innovative electromagnetic induction technology ensures drift-free operation, enabling precise character control in intense games and significantly extending this phone game controller durability
- Ergonomic Grip Design: The handle is ergonomically shaped with a l*ser-engraved texture for anti-slip and enhanced grip, effectively reducing fatigue during long gaming sessions. The scientifically designed joystick and button layout ensures smooth operation. Whether for personal use or as a gift, it delivers a more comfortable and healthier gaming experience
- 7-Color RGB Light Ring & 600mAh Battery: The mobile game controller features a 7-color adjustable light ring on the joystick(ABXY button lights can be turned off, but their colors are not adjustable). The lighting is vibrant yet eye-friendly. The built-in 600mAh battery provides up to 6 hours of battery life in brightness mode — enough for a full day of gaming
Best Mobile RPG
An RPG nomination should be built around role-playing progression, character builds, quests and an RPG structure. Show how players develop characters, make build choices and move through a quest or narrative framework. A game can contain real-time combat and still fit RPG if progression and role development organise the experience; combat alone does not make a game an RPG.
Best Mobile Strategy Game
Choose Strategy when planning, resource decisions, tactics or strategic trade-offs determine success. Your explanation should identify the decisions that matter, such as allocating scarce resources, positioning units, timing actions or responding to an opponent. If the game is primarily a management or simulation system, explain why SLG/Simulation is more precise.
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Use this category for simulation systems, management, building or strategy-simulation play. Clarify the simulated or managed system: a city, business, society, production chain or other environment. The distinction from conventional Strategy is emphasis. Strategy focuses on tactical or strategic decisions as the main contest; SLG/Simulation focuses on operating, modelling or growing a system over time.
Best Mobile Sports/Racing Game
This category covers sports simulations, competitive sports play and racing when that activity is the central experience. Identify the sport or racing discipline, the control model and the competitive decisions that make the mobile version compelling. A game with a sports-themed mini-game inside a broader RPG is not automatically a sports entry.
Best Mobile Platform Game
Choose Platform when jumping, timing and platform traversal define play. Explain the movement challenge, level design and precision required to reach or move between platforms. Action combat can be present, but traversal and timing should remain the feature players most associate with the game.
Rank #3
- Expanded Screen Compatibility: Stretchable up to 213mm, fitting iPad Mini 6/7 and Android tablets; Compatible with iPhone 15/16 and Android devices; Ultra-stable Type-C connection ensures lag-free gaming across all supported screen
- Mobile Gaming Compatibility: Lets you play most of the games you want. Supports Xbox Game Pass, Zenless Zone Zero, cloud gaming, Steam/Moonlight streaming games, and remote play
- Hall Effect Sticks: GameSir Hall Effect sensing sticks deliver 360° seamless pinpoint control, provide the precision and durability that mobile gamers demand
- Ergonomic and Lightweight Design: Stay comfortable during long gaming sessions with the X5 Lite. Weighing just 135.4g, its lightweight design and ergonomically laser-engraved textured grips ensure a secure, comfortable hold for hours of gameplay
- Cushioned and Durable Membrane: The X5 Lite is equipped with cushioned and durable membrane triggers and buttons. The cushioned feedback provides a comfortable experience while ensuring quieter operation
Best Digital Board/Card Game
Use this for a digital adaptation or implementation of board-game and card-game play. Discuss the rules, decision space and how the mobile interface supports turns, decks, boards or other tabletop structures. A game that merely uses cards as equipment or abilities is not necessarily a digital card game; the card or board system should be the play itself.
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Choose Family when the game is designed for broad family play and accessibility across ages. Make the case through approachable rules, readable presentation, suitable challenge and an experience that different family members can enjoy together or independently. Family is about intended audience and accessibility, not simply a colourful art style or a low difficulty setting.
Best Multiplayer Mobile Game
Use this when player-versus-player or co-operative multiplayer is central to the experience. Explain the recurring multiplayer activity, the reasons players return to matches or shared sessions and how the design supports teamwork or competition. An optional multiplayer mode attached to an otherwise single-player game is weaker evidence than a title built around multiplayer from the start.
Best Roblox Game
This category is for a Roblox game whose strongest case is within that platform’s ecosystem. Explain what the title contributes as a Roblox experience: its design, social play, creator-driven qualities or use of the platform. Do not force a conventional genre label if the platform context is the more meaningful distinction.
Best Mobile Port
Choose Mobile Port for a notable mobile adaptation of a game first released on PC or console. Focus on the quality of the conversion: controls, interface, performance, readability and how the original experience works on a phone or tablet. The nomination should show what makes this particular mobile version successful, rather than simply naming the original game.
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Rank #4
- Tri-mode Connectivity: Wired for Xbox, 2.4G & Wired for PC, and Bluetooth for Android. The G7 Pro supports seamless connectivity across Xbox, PC, and Android. Effortlessly switch between modes using the convenient physical mode switch.
- TMR Sticks: The G7 Pro features GameSir's Mag-Res TMR sticks, combining Hall Effect durability with traditional potentiometer performance. This advanced technology delivers stable polling rates for smooth, drift-free gaming with low power consumption.
- Hall Effect Analog Triggers: The GameSir precision-tuned Hall Effect analog triggers provide unmatched smoothness and linear input for precise control. Featuring clicky Micro Switch trigger stops, gamers can easily switch based on their preferences.
- 1000Hz Polling Rate on PC: Experience ultra-responsive gaming with a 1000Hz polling rate on PC, available through both wired and 2.4G wireless connections. This ensures instantaneous input registration, reducing lag and optimizing your performance for the most competitive gameplay.
- GameSir Nexus App: The G7 Pro is compatible with the upgraded GameSir Nexus app, which brings a significant upgrade over the original. It introduces powerful new features such as gyro settings, stick curve adjustments, and button-to-mouse mapping, giving you deeper customization and more control than ever before.
Categories for updates, longevity and industry impact
Most Anticipated Game
This is for an unreleased title that has generated substantial anticipation. It is not the right fit once the game is already competing as a new release. Explain the visible reasons for anticipation, such as the announced concept, known design direction or established interest, without presenting launch as a fact before it occurs.
Best Update or Updated Game of the Year
Use an update category when a substantial update, live-service improvement or renewed body of content is the award-worthy achievement. Describe what changed and why the change materially improved the player experience. This is a better fit than a launch category when the game’s strongest case comes from a major season, redesign, expansion of systems or sustained improvement after release.
Best Game We’re Still Playing
Choose this when long-term player retention and continued relevance are the central story. Your evidence should show why the game remains worth returning to: durable systems, meaningful new content, a healthy routine of play or an audience that continues to treat it as a current game. This category is about staying power, not simply being old.
Best Community
Use Best Community when community management, player culture or sustained community impact is the strongest distinction. Explain how the developer supports players, how players shape the culture and what makes the relationship durable. A large audience alone is not the same as a strong community case.
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Choose Innovation when the game introduces an unusually original mechanic, interaction model, technology use or mobile-native design idea. State what is genuinely different, how players experience it and why the idea matters beyond novelty. If the innovation is only a minor feature inside an otherwise conventional game, a genre or update category may be more persuasive.
Best Value
- Officially licensed by Xbox. Bluetooth connection. Supports Xbox Cloud Gaming.
- Officially supported by Apple. Compatible with Apple and Android devices. Stretchable design fits most phones (100–170mm in length).
- Hall Effect Joysticks and Triggers - Upgraded. Robust and long-lasting. Offering higher precision and sensitivity.
- Tactile bumpers and D-pad, 2 Pro back paddle buttons, Xbox button, and wear-resistant metal joystick rings for more ways to play.
- Support 8BitDo Ultimate Software V2 on mobile.
Best Mobile Publisher
This is a portfolio-level award. Emphasise the publisher’s body of work across its mobile catalogue, consistent support and overall contribution rather than one successful title. A single game can be evidence, but it should illustrate a broader pattern.
Best Mobile Developer
Best Mobile Developer also requires a company-wide case. Focus on the studio’s body of work, craft, technical delivery and continued contribution to mobile games. Do not treat it as another name for Best Mobile Game; the subject is the developer’s record.
Mobile Game of the Year
Reserve the overall award for the strongest all-around case across design, execution, player impact and overall mobile quality. A game does not need to win a genre category first, but the nomination should cover more than one standout feature. Explain why the complete experience merits recognition as the year’s leading mobile game.
How to resolve two plausible genre choices
When a game appears to fit two genre categories, compare it against four practical tests. First, estimate where players spend most of their time. Second, identify the principal skill that determines success. Third, look at the progression structure that organises long-term play. Fourth, ask which feature players most readily associate with the title. The category that wins most of these tests is usually the clearest nomination.
| Comparison test | Question to ask | How to use the answer |
|---|---|---|
| Dominant playtime | What activity occupies the main loop rather than a side mode? | Prioritise that activity’s genre. |
| Principal skill | Is success mainly about reflexes, precise movement, planning, optimisation or build choices? | Match the category to the skill the game repeatedly tests. |
| Progression structure | Do quests and character builds, management systems or tactical objectives organise advancement? | Use RPG, SLG/Simulation or Strategy where that structure is decisive. |
| Player association | What would an informed player mention first when describing the game? | Use the category that makes the nomination immediately understandable. |
For example, a game with action combat and deep character builds may be an RPG if quests and builds organise the full experience. A city-building title with competitive objectives may be SLG/Simulation if operating the simulated city is the central activity. These are decision examples, not claims about any particular nominated game.
Nominate your game step by step
- Check the current award-year page. Confirm the release window, whether the game qualifies as a new release, and which categories are listed for that edition.
- Write the primary loop in one sentence. State exactly what players repeatedly do, such as solving puzzles, managing a simulated system or racing.
- Select the closest category definition. Choose the genre that describes the dominant experience, or select an update, ongoing-play, community or innovation category when that is the strongest distinction.
- Prepare two or three concrete examples. Use a signature mechanic, a meaningful update, a community result or a mobile-specific achievement. Keep each example tied to the category’s definition.
- Test any overlap. Compare dominant playtime, principal skill, progression structure and player association against the alternative category. Record why your chosen category is clearer.
- Separate launch evidence from ongoing evidence. Use a new-release category for the release itself and a persistent category when the case is about longevity, updates, community or collaboration.
- Write for fan voters. Avoid internal development language. A voter should understand the game’s appeal and the reason it belongs in the category after one reading.
- Recheck dates and names before submitting. Annual editions can change both the eligible period and the category list.
Can an older game qualify?
Older games may still be relevant where a category draws on the broader back catalogue or where the award recognises continuing work. Best Game We’re Still Playing, Best Community and Best Game Update are examples of categories whose logic is not limited to a first release during the new-release window. Eligibility is edition-specific, so an older title should be checked against the current rules rather than assumed eligible.
If the game is unreleased, use Most Anticipated only while it remains unreleased. If it has launched but the strongest achievement is a later overhaul or live-service improvement, present that case through the applicable update category instead of treating the update as a new launch.
Common nomination mistakes and fixes
- Choosing the most prestigious-sounding category: Replace it with the category that best describes the primary loop.
- Listing every genre the game contains: Pick one lead genre and explain why secondary features do not define the whole experience.
- Calling an optional mode “multiplayer”: Show that competition or co-operation is central to regular play.
- Confusing Strategy with SLG/Simulation: Identify whether tactical decisions or operating a simulated system is the main activity.
- Using Innovation for a small feature: Demonstrate an unusually original mechanic, interaction model, technology use or mobile-native idea.
- Submitting a studio as a single-game candidate: Use portfolio evidence for Publisher or Developer categories.
- Ignoring the mobile conversion: For a port, explain controls, interface and performance on mobile, not just the quality of the original.
- Relying on unsupported numbers: Use verifiable examples and explain their significance instead of inventing vote totals, thresholds or judging weights.
- Using an outdated category list: Recheck the edition page immediately before submitting.
The practical distinction between the two awards programmes
| Programme | Primary subject | What a nomination should emphasise |
|---|---|---|
| Pocket Gamer Awards | Mobile games and player experiences | Genre fit, game quality, updates, longevity, community, innovation or overall mobile impact. |
| Mobile Games Awards | Behind-the-scenes industry talent | The work of companies and professionals supporting the mobile-games business. |
If you are nominating a game, its mechanics, players and mobile execution belong at the centre of the Pocket Gamer Awards case. If you are recognising an organisation’s industry contribution, you may be looking at the separate Mobile Games Awards instead.
Quick Recap
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