Announcing the Pocket Gamer Awards 2027, your chance to celebrate the best mobile games of the year

• This year's awards nomination phase will start on the 15th of October
• Now including a massive 22 categories, giving you the chance to have your voice heard about everything from Best Character to Best Indie Developer
• Eligability Period from 1st October '25 to 30th September '26

That's right, it's time to talk about the best of the best again. Today we're announcing the Pocket Gamer Awards 2027 (that's our 13th edition), and that they'll be kicking off with the nominations phase next week on the 15th of October.

You probably already know how these things work, however, this year we've made a couple of fun little changes in the form of reformatting some of the award categories. Mobile gaming is, of course, always changing - as is the wider industry - and so we've made adjustments to suit.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Those come in the following changes: We've removed Mobile Innovation to save doubling up, but we've added in categories for Best Mobile Indie Developer and Best Mobile Game Character, we've also changed the Best Update/Updated Game into Best Mobile Game Update. That subtle latter change is because we already have the Best Game We're Still Playing category, which much better encompassaes the 'Live Ops' landscape of mobile games.

We've also snuck in Best In-Game Collab. I'm sure that you've seen the dozens-upon-dozens of crossovers that have happened in the largest or longest-running mobile games; Things like the McDonalds & Monopoly Go crossover, the myriad of World Cup crossovers and the time that WWE wrestlers suddenly showed up in your clan base.

We've also swapped out Best Family Game - as we have plenty of genre categories - to bring in a Best Webshop category. That one might be a little confusing, as it's a little bit business-lingo, but if you've been buying your game currency through an official game website then you've been taking part in the Webshop revolution. It's become such a large thing that we actually launched a deals section here at Pocket Gamer earlier this year - all to help show you the best ways to safely save money when buying for mobile games. 

And, finally, we've added in a long-requested award that celebrates one of the most important design elements of games: Best Mobile Game Character. This one is likely to cause fights, but with so many gacha, RPG and strategy games out there it's incredibly hard to tell characters apart unless they have fantastic design, excellent writing and that special something. That's why we've decided to add this award into the mix, so that you can celebrate your favourite brawler, mage, cookie or werewolf villain-turned-hero.

Timelines & Caveats

Mobile Gaming has been going strong for well over a decade now, so we've put an eligability clause in place for the majority of the awards: Game entries must have launched between 1st October '25 and 30th September '26.

Naturally, Best Character, Best Game We're Still Playing, Best Community, Best Webshop, Best Game Update and Best In-Game Collab don't need to follow this rule with the launch, however updates should be within the period where possible. Similarly, do tell us your favourite Indie Developer, Publisher and Developer based on their catalogue, but do keep recent releases in mind.

Nominations for the Pocket Gamer Awards 2027 will open on the 15th of October and run through until the 15th of November, after that point Voting will run through until the 20th December, and we'll announce the winners early next year.