Polygon Budgets for Mobile Games

Why there is no single number

Budgets depend on the device range you support, the number of objects on screen, camera distance, shaders and the rest of the game's cost. A model that is cheap in a match-3 game can be too heavy in a crowd battler. Always confirm numbers with your engineer and test on the lowest-end target device.

Typical starting ranges (for modern mid-range mobile)

These are rough planning figures, not rules. Triangle counts are measured after triangulation.

• Small props and items: a few hundred to ~3,000 triangles.
• Medium props and set pieces: ~2,000 to 10,000.
• Characters (in-game, third person): ~3,000 to 15,000, depending on how many can be on screen.
• Hero characters shown up close (menus, collection screens): can be higher, since only one is shown at a time.
• Environment modules: depends on the scene; the whole scene budget matters more than any single piece.

Casual and match-3 games often use pre-rendered or 2D sprites from 3D models, where triangle count matters only at render time and not at runtime.

Other budgets that matter as much

• Texture size: 128–512 px for small props, 512–1024 for characters, higher only for close-ups. See texel density.
• Materials per object: ideally one. Each extra costs a draw call.
• Bones: commonly around 30–60 for a mobile character, with a limit of four bone influences per vertex.
• Total memory: the combined budget for textures, meshes and animations.

How to set your own budget

1. Choose the lowest-end device you will support.
2. Build a test scene with the maximum number of objects the game will show.
3. Profile it, then raise or lower the per-asset budget until the frame rate is stable.
4. Write the final numbers into your art bible, per asset category.
5. Review the first batch of assets against it before scaling up.

Spend triangles wisely

Put geometry on the silhouette, use baking or texture for small details, remove hidden faces and use LODs for things that appear at many distances. For help with a specific project see our match-3 and casual art, or send us your limits and we will build to them.