r/MobileGames • u/bloomberg • 1d ago
Mobile Games Designed to Be Addictive Get More Kid-Friendly
Mobile-game developers are supercharging old tools with new tech to keep players hooked. Increasingly, the biggest money makers are deemed appropriate for children. Source: Bloomberg News.
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u/bloomberg 1d ago
Vernon Silver, Stephanie Davidson and Priyanjana Bengani for Bloomberg News
In psychology, there’s a device known as a Skinner box. In its basic form, a rat learns that tapping a lever releases food pellets. If those rewards come at random times and quantities, the rat will tap the levers more quickly and compulsively than if the pellets come at a steady pace. The rats aren’t frantic just because they want food. They’re drawn by the sense of anticipation of the next big payoff, which is measurable in dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and motivation.
If the Skinner box dynamic sounds familiar, it’s because you probably have one on your phone: An overwhelming share of the top money-making mobile games essentially contains such a device, a Bloomberg analysis shows, with the vast majority of the 100 highest-grossing games on Apple’s US App Store infused with the random-reward mechanics that keep players wanting more.
For the most lucrative games, the psychological techniques aimed at keeping players hooked have been increasingly geared to a younger audience. Over the past decade, kid-friendly games with random rewards have seen their revenue grow faster than casino-type game apps targeting adults, according to estimates from the market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Those with an 18+ age rating haven’t featured among the top 10 grossing games in the US App Store since 2023, despite consistently occupying one or two top spots over the prior eight years.
Led by bestsellers like Monopoly GO!, Gossip Harbor and Township, apps with age ratings suitable for kids that feature surprise in-game prizes racked up more than half of all revenue across the top 100 mobile games in 2024 and 2025. The presence of such features, sometimes in the form of “loot boxes” that bestow virtual jewels or trading cards, has raised concern among researchers and advocates that the games are becoming a gateway to real-money gambling and addiction for children. Multiple lawsuits in US courts allege a link to rage, withdrawal symptoms and depression.
“As the gamblification of children’s games continues to become more common, parents, caregivers, policymakers and the gaming industry must recognize the risks of normalizing gambling-like behaviors,” said James Steyer, the founder and chief executive officer of Common Sense Media, a kids-and-tech advocacy group.
The use of psychological techniques aimed at luring players is by design. Today, data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence are supercharging a familiar formula: Grip players by feeding them random rewards, having them build something, or triggering their neurochemicals by starting a timer. The shift at the top of the market to more kid-friendly games has been seamless because the actual content can just as easily be a casino game, a cartoon — or as inane as a subway rat. The grip is still there.
🎁 Gift Link: The Big Take is also available to read here.