What is an acceptable size, in MB, of a mobile game

I am developing my mobile game and just wonder what size is acceptable for a mobile IOS and Android game?

Also, i would guess that many mobile 3d games is pretty big?

 

Less than 40mb.

As for models, the biggest impact have textures there. You should use JPG textures as much as possible since even JPEG with quality set to max is smaller than png of same image. Another thing that needs to be considered both for size and performance (former less important here) is polycount as you're developing for what is an essentially equivalent in graphical capabilities of late 90s to mid 2000s PC machines.

 

Wait what? Why 40mb?

And AFAIK what the initial texture format is doesn't really matter since Unity converts them to whatever the project has set them to be (compressed pvr/uncompressed/16bit/whatever).

 

If your game is over 100mb iOS users will be required to be on WiFi to download it. If it is less, they can download it over their mobile data plan.

EDIT: Less than 40mb is an incredibly low goal to shoot for. Unity alone will take up 10-20mb depending on build stripping. I think 100mb is a comfortable goal. Of course it all depends on the type of game you're making.

 

Why not check out the store guidelines?

 

Greater than 50 MB for an Android APK will force the build to generate a separate OBB expansion file for your users to download, and that's not cool.

EDIT:
Hmm, Android docs updated the limit to 100MB, but Unity docs still say 50, so make your best guess....

 

We try to keep it <100 so it can be be downloaded without wi-fi. At least the initial download.

Beyond that, it's really depends on the game. Try to keep it as small as you can within the needs of the game. It's not uncommon to see ~1gb games, even in the to 10

 

As @AcidArrow pointed out, texture format is irrelevant as unity converts. It's better to have uncompressed source in your project as the results will be better.

Also, modern devices have graphicall capabilities closer to last gen consoles. (Though not the memory space for storage).

 

I've had some that were a smallish download from the App Store & then when it installed it downloaded >1gb

 

I just had one like that a few weeks ago too. It was weird because it was a some casual puzzle game. I was surprised it needed that much.

As a developer you have to careful of that stuff. Make sure to check for available space if are loading remote content. Our last game, when we first launched, didn't check. And though the main game was around 80mb, if you played past the first level it downloaded about 300mb of content. We ran into an edge case where some players didn't have the available space for that. It would just crash. We eventually added a warning.

 

I've been playing fallout shelter on android and it was 147MB. I don't think there is a set amount as I almost always install apps when on wifi, just make sure it is worth the space.

 

Hearthstone is like half a gig. All of my installed games right now are over 100 mb.

It all depends on the complexity of your game.

 

Is there a way of checking the size without building on device?

 

Unpack built .apk file to some folder in computer (.apks are zips with fancy extension).

 

But what is relevant to the build is the Max Size and the Format in the texture import settings window.
Another thing people tend to overlook is audio. Make sure you increase the compression in the audio import settings especially for large audio files.

Also a cleanup/review of everything in Resources and StreamingAssets folders is another good idea.

 

About that, I like using the Build Report Tool to track my assets in a build.