According to a CGIA/IDC report for the first half of this year, Chinese game revenues reached a total of 33.89 billion RMB; a 36.4 per cent increase compared with the same period last year, and almost double last year’s level.
The report breaks down online game income at 31.3 billion RMB, mobile online game sales at 2.53 billion RMB, and offline game revenues at 60 million RMB for the period from January to June.
The online game revenues grew by 32.9 per cent, with titles developed domestically accounting for 92.1 per cent of the market and sales of 24.34 billion RMB; a 44.4 per cent increase of over last year.
China’s overseas export revenues also reached 2.95 billion RMB, an increase of 161.1 per cent over last year. Web and mobile games led the substantial growth in exports, with web game earnings of more than 1 billion RMB, and mobile game export revenue over 600 million RMB.
Client network game users reached 125 million in China, an increase of 4.1 per cent compared to the same period last year and a new low. For the first half of 2013, client game revenues were 23.29 billion RMB, an increase of only 18 per cent from the same period last year.
MMORPG games specifically accounted for 14.23 billion RMB in revenues; an increase of 12.2 per cent and 61.1 per cent of total client game earnings.
Chinese web game users reached 279 million; a growth rate 36 per cent and only slightly higher than a year earlier. Web game revenues reached 5.34 billion RMB with growth slowing to 39.8 per cent, less than a year ago and close to the overall growth rate.
Web game market share accounted for 15.9 per cent, a new high but an increase of just 0.4 per cent compared to last year. So after several years of rapid growth, the competitive Chinese web game market seems to be approaching maturity.
RPGs accounted for 73.9 per cent of web games in China, 14.7 per cent were war strategy titles, business strategy games acounted for 6 per cent, and casual sports games 3.5 per cent.
China’s mobile network game users also reached 171 million people; a strong 119.3 per cent increase compared to last year and the most rapidly growing market segment.
Mobile market sales revenue reached 2.53 billion RMB, an increase of 100.8 per cent. Nearly five years of data show that the mobile market has expanded each year with the current market share at 7.5 per cent.
However, rapid growth in mobile products, research and development and operating platforms in China has been countered by increased homogenisation of content, lower user stickiness and other issues, greatly shortening mobile product life cycles.
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