Has anyone else noticed how mobile games like Merge Gardens have become way more polished over the last few years?

I started playing mostly for the relaxing merge mechanics, but recently I’ve been paying more attention to the UI, event flow, animations, and how smooth everything feels across devices. Even simple things like inventory management and syncing progress between phone and PC are handled much better now.

It actually made me curious about how much work goes into mobile gaming apps behind the scenes. A friend of mine works with an app development service in Kolkata  and mentioned that a lot of studios now focus heavily on user retention, clean interfaces, and lightweight performance optimization because players leave quickly if a game feels laggy or cluttered.

Merge Gardens is one of the few games I keep coming back to because it feels relaxing instead of overwhelming.

What do you all think makes a mobile game “stick” long term?

For me it’s probably:

• smooth gameplay
• calming visuals/music
• events that don’t feel too grindy
• easy syncing across devices
• and a clean interface

Curious what keeps everyone else playing.