A network controller, a user equipment (UE) device, and associated methods for adaptively prioritizing simultaneous unicast and multicast communications based on traffic classes. The UE may determine whether each of a unicast communication and a multicast communication are associated with a foreground application or a background application. The UE may further determine whether each of the unicast communication and the multicast communication are high priority or low priority. The UE may then buffer one of the unicast or multicast communications based on the whether it is associated with a foreground or background application, whether it is high or low priority, and whether it is a unicast or multicast communication.