China the New Gamer Capital of the World

China Has The Largest Market Size of Gamers In The World

Computer game revenue has exceeded $100 billion globally in a single year for the first time. According a report published by Atomico, a London-based venture capital firm China has become the new “gamer capital” of the world, overtaking the U.S in the number of game players.

The industry holds a $101.1 billion global market value, the 600 million gamers in China generated $24.6 billion over 2016, slightly ahead of the $24.1 billion generated in The U.S. The global games industry was worth $91.8 billion in 2015.

Apple's mobile app store in China is considered to be notable contributor to the growth. China accounted for 31% of the total $18 billion generated. In 2012 China only accounted for 3% of the $2.4 billion market.

Increase In Mobile Gaming

The gaming industry have broken the $100 billion barrier, the industry is now worth over three times more than the film industry worldwide.

Mobile gaming has increased, growing to $39 billion, and is now officially the largest gaming segment.

The smart-phone has allowed increased access to games, and they are now played by more people of different incomes, nationalities, ages and sexes. Smart-phone users are now the largest segment of gamers.

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Image: Commuters using smart-phones on the train

China Dominating the Market

Mobile gaming has become extremely popular and Tencent Holdings Ltd, China's largest internet company by market value is seeing great success from its mobile gaming divisions.

According to Atomico's report 56% of U.S gamers spend their money on U.S developed games, Europeans spend about 36% on games developed in Europe.

China, in contrast, prefers Chinese developed games and 93% of all money spent by Chinese games goes towards titles developed by Chinese based companies. Most of China's gaming market is therefore contained at home. 

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Image:Tencent Holdings Ltd Honour of Kings Game

China's Growing Game Industry

Tencent Holdings Ltd owns Honour of Kings a Chinese mobile Role-playing Fantasy game which analysts estimate this year will contribute over 50% of Tencent's smart-phone game revenue and record a gross revenue of $440 Million in April.

Honor of Kings has attracted 50 million daily active users after its launch last year. It's more popular than Nintendo's Pokemon Go which captivated the world last year. While the game Honor of Kings is almost unknown outside of China, its number of players is roughly equal to the entire population of South Korea.

A new level of access to affordable mobile devices and the growing industry of local Chinese gaming companies has allowed Chinese gamers to partake and overtake in their gaming pursuit like never before.