What’s the best platform for games? Android, iOS or Windows Phone?

Nowadays the question persists: after all what is the best platform for games? Android, iOS or Windows Phone? What is not missing is a catalog by which you can choose the phone that suits you, but is it best to play? That’s what we’ll know.

A few years ago, Apple ruled over the app market. He had the ‘triple-A’ games, and the overall developer support was top notch. If a new application or app update were coming, it would very likely be the first iOS.

A Background on the Markets

The story has changed a bit in recent years, but not entirely. Android now has pretty much all big-name apps, and new ones are usually released more or less simultaneously with iOS (or not long after).

Some even make their debut on Android due to Google’s more relaxed approval process.

And then there’s Windows 10 Mobile. There are an lot of applications on Windows 10 Mobile, and the number of great players offering something to the platform is growing, but it’s not like the others. But these applications often lag behind the two main platforms when it comes to getting updates, and often lack fundamental features. Developers seem to launch an application, mention it now supports Windows 10 Mobile and then turn their attention back to iOS and Android.

If you cannot live without a game, each platform has its store where you can get all kinds of applications and games you want: Android has Google Play, iOS has the App Store, and finally you have the Windows Phone Store. This being good news for casual gamers and hardcore gamers, we ask the following: Which of these three stores is the best regarding quantity and quality?

According to Appbrain, StatisticBrain and WP7Applist application statistics, both Google Play and Appstore have more than a million active applications in their catalogs, while the Windows Phone store does not even come close to these numbers. Some games in the Google Play and Appstore catalog reach 25%, which corresponds to 250,000 titles for each platform are games. In Windows Phone, it reaches 23%, 32,000 of 140 thousand.

However, as we all know, quality does not mean quality, does it? Can most of the apps we find in stores be considered high quality? If you do a little search, you may notice that most iOS and Windows Phone users give high ratings to most games, reaching as much as 4 1/2 stars. Android users are much more demanding, and most TOP games are only rated four stars. In any case, all 3 markets have good criteria for ranking the most popular games. In this first category, Android and iOS are the common winners because the difference that separates them is insignificant.

Exclusivity

Another fact that should be considered when buying a mobile phone is the selection of exclusive games for each operating system. Although Android has a very large variety of game in its catalog, regarding games exclusivity Apple leads the market. We have as examples latest Plants vs. Zombies 2 by Electronic Arts and The Rope 2 by ZeptoLab. Regarding these two, they were first released in the Apple Store and only later in the Play Store.

We can also warn that the Apple Store also dominates the launch of exclusive games by platform! In addition to being games with higher quality, they also have better graphics and better gameplay. One of the many cases was the Infinity Blade game and lots of games like XCOM and Bioshock.

Comparing these two operating systems to Windows Phone is like saying that there is no comparison possible as this operating system is in another completely different league because the platform does not have most of the games that go out for Android and iOS.

Both were released by Apple months before its arrival on Android. If you want to go even further, the App Store also dominates when it comes to exclusive platform games. These games are usually much more high quality, both graphically and regarding gameplay. The first known case was the Infinity Blade RPG series. This was followed by other major titles and game ports like XCOM and Bioshock. Windows Phone is not even in the same league. For one, the platform does not have many of the best Android and iOS games.

If you think that Windows Phone finds games like Pokémon Go, Minecraft or Candy Crush Saga, you are very much mistaken. Find clones of much lower quality like Super Sweet Crush, Survival Craft, etc. The only advantage when it comes to games in acquiring is that some games are spin-offs of major titles like Halo. There is the example of Halo: Spartan Assault or even Kinectimals.

Free games and other factors

If you go through Google Play, do not be scared by how many free games there are. However, if you go through the App Store, many of the free games that exist on Android, have a small cost. But it’s no reason to worry because they are games like Angry Birds or even the famous game Pou. Of course the same happens on Windows Phone, except if they are Xbox branded games.

As for the prices of the remaining applications, they are all quite similar. Prices for updates, help, or virtual currencies are the same on all three operating systems. No store stands out from one another about the above subject. If we go to see regarding money, the Android operating system is a clear winner, since many of the free games in your store are paid games in others.

Recalling all that has been said so far, we just do not talk about the added value of each operating system, do we? Do not forget that sometimes it’s the little things that make the difference. And I mean small things like deals and offers! Once again, Android leads the bidding market because it has a store where the promotions have a great highlight compared to other stores, where they stand out much less.

Also remembering that on Android you can play retro games and use emulators as it is the only way to play the classic games on your mobile phone. But in this matter Windows Phone does not keep behind, also having the possibility to play several of these classics. Already Apple is very strict in the use of emulators.