Your iPhone is getting a dedicated Game Mode in iOS 18, here’s what that means

Ahead of today’s WWDC keynote, there were a lot of features that had already been reported on. One surprise that showed up as part of iOS 18 was Game Mode, a special mode that optimizes your device for gaming sessions.

Here’s what the new Game Mode does for your iPhone.

Game Mode brings enhancements to iPhone gaming

In iOS 18, your iPhone will be able to automatically enter a special Game Mode whenever you’re having a serious gaming session. Game Mode will do three things:

1. Minimize your iPhone’s background activity so it can sustain consistently high frame rates, even after hours of play
2. Massively reduce latency when using a Bluetooth game controller
3. Similarly reduce latency when using AirPods for audio

There’s no special switch to toggle, instead your iPhone will automatically trigger game mode where appropriate to provide a higher quality gaming experience on iOS.

Game Mode is designed for AAA titles

You probably won’t notice the benefits of Game Mode when playing a game like Candy Crush. But the next time you play a high-performance title, perhaps like the forthcoming Sniper Elite 4, everything should run smoother than before.

Apple has been pushing for more AAA game titles to come to the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Most of its efforts have been focused on Mac gaming, but Game Mode is evidence that the company knows it has work to do on iOS too.

Game Mode already existed on the Mac, but it’s great to see it come to the iPhone too with iOS 18.

Are you excited about Game Mode? Do you ever encounter performance issues when gaming on your iPhone? Let us know in the comments.