China gaming users continued to grow in 2017, increasing from 417 million to 422 million, but the proportion of internet users who were gamers fell slightly on the back of higher growth in internet penetration, to 56.1% (down 0.9 percentage points).

Mobile gaming gained ground, with the number of users increasing from 352 million to 385 million, and their portion of the total number of internet users rising from 50.6% to 53.3%.

Consumers of cultural products continued their gradual move online, with cultural websites and apps recording 352 million visitors in the first half of 2017, up from 333 million in 2016.

There were a total of 565 million users of video streaming websites in the first half of 2017, an increase of 20.26 million (3.7%) from 2016; 75.2% of internet users streamed video in the first half of 2017.

Chinese audience for online music streaming platforms was similar to that for video, albeit slightly smaller; from last year’s 503 million people, visitors to music streaming sites and apps increased by 21 million to 524 million (69.8% of internet users).

Ride-sharing and mobile taxi reservations saw dramatic growth in the first half of 2017, with user numbers increasing by 53.3 million to reach 278 million.

Download the details in the updated China Internet Insights report here.

Tencent is the number one public company ($10.2 bn) in the world by game revenues in 2016, followed by Sony ($7.88 bn) according to Newzoo. Another Chinese company Netease also made it to the top 10 ($4.2 bn) whose revenues grew by over 50%.

APAC territories will generate $46.6 billion in 2016, or 47% of total global game revenues according to Newzoo.

China alone accounts for half of APAC’s revenues, reaching $24.4 billion in 2016 to cement its place as the largest games market in the world, ahead of the US’s anticipated market size of $23.5 billion. China will remain the largest games market for the foreseeable future, growing to $28.9 billion by 2019.

Top 10 Public Companies by game Revenues

Consolidation of the Top 10

The current top 10 public companies by game revenues accounted for 54% of the global games market in 2016, up from 43% in 2015.

Related: China online gaming market overview 2011-2019

China online gaming market reached 177 billion yuan (US$25.7 bn) in 2016 and is estimated to grow to exceed 232 billion yuan (US$33.69 bn) in 2019 according to data from iResearch.

The proportion of mobile games grow to over 56% in 2016 and will exceed 66% in 2019. The total number of mobile gaming users is 521 million and the PC end has 484 million users in 2016.

Tencent is the top online gaming company by revenues with 325.2 billion yuan (US$47.23 bn) revenues from PC and 383.4 bn yuan (US$55.68 bn) from mobile, followed by Netease (PC: 108.3 bn yuan/US$15.73 bn; mobile: 165.1 bn yuan/US$23.98 bn).

This article is an excerpt from EBook – China Internet Insights 2017

China’s mobile internet market reached RMB 197.22 billion (USD 29 billion) in Q2 2016, an increase of 113% YoY or 22.7% QoQ according to iResearch.

Mobile shopping accounted for 62.9% of China’s mobile internet market, followed by mobile advertising (20.1%) and mobile gaming (12.4%).

China’s mobile shopping market reached RMB 783.44 billion (USD 115.65 billion) in Q2 2016 with a growth rate of 75.9% YoY.

China online gaming market reached RMB 41.6 billion (US$6.24 billion) in Q2 2016, an increase of 24.2% YoY or 0.9% QoQ.

China mobile gaming market reached RMB 24.4 billion (US$3.66 bn) in Q2 2016, an increase of 120.3% YoY or 15.5% QoQ. Mobile accounted for 58.7% of China’s total online gaming market in Q2 2016.

China mobile gaming market rose to US$6.5 billion in 2015 according to Newzoo. China’s overall mobile gaming market declined in active ratio in 2015 according to TalkingData. Mobile chess games were popular among China mobile players in 2015.

Paid games rate of mobile role play games, action, and strategy games were higher than leisure games and card games in 2015. Mobile role play games, action, and strategy games have gradually captured more market in China.

China’s mobile RPG (role play game), FPS (first person shooting), MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena), SLG (simulation game), and card games which increased in a large amount in 2015 made the user retention rate increase and one-day user rate decline.

Some large companies such as Tencent began to develop the vertical market of mobile games in 2015. Although many players spent more time on some games, the overall usage seconds declined in 2015.

China’s overall mobile gaming market declined in active rate in 2015. Companies tended to transform to content-oriented APRU (average revenue per user) games.

Paid game ratio of role play games was the highest in December 2015. Pay game rate declined slightly overall while the rate of action games and role play games increased by about 4% in December 2015 compared to the previous month.

The weekly average active rate on the iOS operating system was higher than the Android and it increased by 39.5% compared to the previous month in December 2015. The weekly average active rate on Android system increased by 4.9% compared to the previous month.

The monthly active rate of puzzle games was the highest in Android smartphone players and monthly active rate of leisure games was the highest in iOS mobile players in December 2015. The monthly active rate increased by 9.4% month-on-month on iOS system and 0.3% month-on-month on Android system.

Mobile chess games had the lowest one-day player rate on average in December 2015. Chess games have traditionally been popular among users in different ages and careers. One-day play rate decreased slightly in December 2015.

Next-day retention rate rose by 11.8% month-on-month on Android system in last December. Mobile chess games had the highest next-day retention rate which might be influenced by the characteristics of chess games.

Seven-day retention rate increased 19.5% on iOS system in December 2015. Mobile chess games had the highest 7-day retention rate.

Mobile players on iOS system were more addicted to mobile games in December 2015. Many mobile games increased in usage seconds and usage times in December 2015, among which role play games, action games, and chess games maintained a large growth extent.

Mobile players in iOS system spent more time on games than Android players in December 2015. Mobile Android players spent an average of 598 seconds on role play games and iOS players spent an average of 1,080 seconds on strategy games in December 2015.

Global mobile gaming market reached more than US$30 billion in 2015 according to Newzoo, a Dutch research institute. China mobile gaming market rose to US$6.5 billion (equivalent to the entire North American market revenue) with an increase of to 46.5% YoY in 2015 being the world’s largest market. China online gaming market was expected to reach $22.2 billion in 2015 according to TalkingData.

Also read: China’s Mobile Internet Insights Q1-Q3 2015

The number of China’s gaming players is to reach 534 million with an increase of 3.3% YoY in 2015. The overall gaming market in China totals 140.70 billion yuan (US$21.71 billion) with an increase of 22.9% YoY this year according to China Gaming Industry Annual Conference, including client-based games, web page games, social games, mobile games, single-player games, and TV games.

Online gaming market developed independently in China reached 98.67 billion yuan (US$15.22 billion) in revenues with an increase of 35.8% YoY. Actual export sales of self-developed online games in China reached US$5.31 billion with an increase of 72.4% compared to the previous year.

Actual sales of China’s client-side gaming market reached 61.16 billion yuan (US$9.44 billion) with an increase of 0.4% YoY. Web gaming market reaches 21.96 billion yuan (US$3.39 billion) in revenues with an increase of 8.3% YoY; mobile gaming market reached 51.46 billion yuan (US$7.94 billion) with an increase of 87.2% YoY. And, console gaming market reached 140 million yuan (US$21.60 million) with an increase of 180% YoY. TV gaming market reached 220 million yuan (US$33.94 million).

About 750 games have been approved in 2015 to publish by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of China, among which client games accounted for 11.2%, web games 32.8%, mobile games 49.7%, and TV games 6.3%. The top three regions of most published games are Shanghai (51.2%), Beijing (16.2%), and Guangdong (9.0%).

The number of China’s public listed gaming companies reached 171 with a total market value of 4,761 billion yuan, 79.6% of which are listed on A-share stock exchanges accounting for 65.2% of total market value. 9.9% are listed in Hong Kong accounting for 32.3% total market value; 10.5% in the U.S accounting for 2.5% of total public listed gaming companies’ market value.

Also read: China’s Mobile Internet Insights Q1-Q3 2015

China’s online gaming market reached 35.39 billion (US$5.51 billion) in the third quarter of 2015 with an increase of 5.5% QoQ and 24.5% YoY according to iResearch.

Mobile gaming accounted for 35.1% China online gaming market while online gaming declined in terms of transactions.

Mobile gaming has become the driving force of China online gaming market. As users spent more and more time on smartphones and mobile games, the mobile gaming market was expected to exceed PC client online gaming.

The mobile gaming market in Q3 2015 was predicted to reach 12.41 billion (US$1.89 billion) with an increase of 11.9% QoQ and 72.0% YoY although Analysys, another Chinese research company, predicted it would reach 14.66 billion yuan (US$2.28 billion) in Q3 2015.

The increase was mainly due to more severe competitive game categories as FPS and MOBA and increasing IP games which have brought more traffic and fans. What’s more, a large number of students are obsessed with mobile gaming during summer holidays in August and September.

The most popular mobile games were role play games, cards games and chess games in the third quarter of 2015. China’s mobile gaming players are expected to reach 360 million generating transactions of US$50.1 billion according to RecordJapan, and the average weekly usage will be as long as 4.3 hours in 2015.

The overall online gaming market in China this year is expected to reach $22.2 billion (about 142 billion yuan), and officially surpass the U.S. as the world’s largest online gaming market according to data of TalkingData and Newzoo.

Also read: China’s Mobile Internet Insights Q1-Q3 2015

China mobile gaming market reached 14.663 billion yuan (US$2.29 billion), an increase of 13.7% QoQ and 101.8% YoY.

China’s mobile gaming market began a rapid growth in 2012, which has attracted a large number of entrepreneurs and investors. However, China’s large mobile gaming companies had a tendency to join forces together which led to great pressure to small and medium sized developers that Matthew Effect was clearly heightened.

Tencent, Netease, and OurPalm controlled China’s mobile gaming market with a combined market share of 52% (Tencent 27.3%, Netease 18.1%, and Ourpalm 6.6%). New games flooded the market at an amazing speed. For example, a total number of 1,301 new games entered the market in October 2015. Role play games and card games were most popular.

China’s mobile gaming market is expected to reach US$50.1 billion in 2015 with about 360 million users and weekly average usage of 4.3 hours according to RecordJapan. The global mobile gaming market is predicted to reach US$250 billion with 1,500 million new users in 2015.

Also read: China’s Mobile Search Market Insights in Q3 2015

China’s mobile internet users reached 657 million and smartphone users 601 million in Q2 2015 according to iiMedia. Smartphone penetration in China is expected to reach 38.6% by the end of 2015 and mobile apps is becoming an important part of Chinese life.

Nearly 58.7% of the Chinese Android smartphone users downloaded apps from third-party app stores. Other important download channels are app stores of smartphone vendors, app stores of system operating vendors and app stores of operating vendors. Only a small amount of users will download apps from websites. Users of iOS usually download from App Stores.

Active users of third-party mobile app stores in Q2 2015 increased to 428 million, with growth of 1.9% compared with the previous quarter. Users of third-party app stores kept a steady growth momentum although the growth rate slows down.

360 Mobile Guard ranks first in terms of total number of active users, followed by Myapp and Baidu Mobile Assistant. Xiaomi app store is also popular, especially among MIUI and Xiaomi users. Stores with high profile, variety of apps and security insurance are key factors to attract more users.

In terms of popularity of various types of mobile apps in China, the Chinese smartphone users prefer instant messaging and social communication apps, followed by news apps and music apps.

App update frequency by developers could reflect the number of active users and the competitiveness. About 14.3% apps are updated once longer than six months which means users aren’t a lot and may not be further maintained.

Tencent News, TouTiao, Netease News and Sohu News are major channels for Chinese to get news information. The post-90s, post-80s and post-70s are the majority of mobile app readers.

By Q2 2015, China’s music apps users reached 423 million with a growth rate of 2.7%. Kugou Music and QQ music win in music apps market with their high publicity and large song lists. Music apps are not used as frequently as news apps.

Taxi-calling apps are the most frequently used amongall car-calling apps for the lower cost. Users who prefer to get a better experience are more likely to use carpooling apps. The average fare of 78.2% taxi trips is less than 50 yuan (US$7.85) while only 24.9% of carpooling is less than 50 yuan. About 36.8% of carpooling costs is between 50 yuan to 100 yuan (US$15.70).

China mobile video app market is basically the same with the online market. Active users of music apps reachED 368 million with a growth rate of 3.1%. A matured online video market of Youku, iQIYI, Tencent Video, PPTV and Sohu Video has been established. Other apps in total accounted for only 18.1% of market share.

China’s mobile gaming users reached 10.85 billion yuan in Q2 2015, with 491 million users. Mobile apps couldn’t process too much storage and a majority of existing apps are puzzle games.

China’s app market still has a large room for development. At present, advertising and value-added services are the two most important profit channels for developers. However, the average usage period of apps is only ten months and about 85% apps are uninstalled within a month, especially social communication apps, which makes it hard for developers to gain profits. Developers should avoid invasion of users’ privacy and improve performance to attract more users.

Also read: China’s Mobile Search Market Insights in Q3 2015

By the first half of 2015, the number of China’s mobile gaming users totaled 365.5 million, which achieved a growth rate of 12.5% compared with the same period last year.

China’s mobile gaming market began a rapid growth in 2012, which attracted a large number of entrepreneurs and investors owing. According to some experts, a successful mobile game costs 3 million yuan in research and development while gained 10 times profit for several months.

However, China’s large mobile gaming companies had a tendency to join forces together and caused greater pressure to small and medium sized developers. H1 2015 reached 20.93 billion yuan in the mobile gaming market with YoY growth of 67.2% and QoQ of 21.9%, and it is expected to generate more than 40 billion yuan.

Many considerable problems existed in China mobile gaming market, both home and domestic. For example, in China about 66% users would lose interests within only 24 hours after first access, and only 1% to 3% were willing to experience more with in-app payment; about 75% mobile gaming apps require promotion, adding more costs to companies; the traditional online gaming market could support an instant communication platform for users while mobile-end could not.

Mobile gaming expanded markets with an unbelievable growth rate. With the integration of resources as well as the improvement of hardware performance, the future of mobile gaming will face greater development potential. Tmall made an excellent demonstration for us: cooperating with some mobile gaming company, Tmall support one-click purchase when users had favorable clothes of gaming models. In the future, more mobile gaming companies would cooperate with e-business companies.

Also read: Moda, Tmall Virtual Dressing Room Debuted

The penetration ratio of iOS8 reached 76% in China in Q2 2015; and as of August 2015, only 19.4% subscribers still used the iOS7 system. The popularization of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus promoted the adoption of iOS8, and the free system upgrade feature improved iPhone user base in China. When issued in September 2015, iOS9 might replace iOS8 and gain more market share.

Smartphones with large screens were most welcomed in China. Screens with 1280*920 were best-sellers in the market, as Xiaomi Note, Huawei Glory, iPhone 6Plus.

Smartphones market in China faced a fierce competition in the past several months. Xiaomi and Huawei chased iPhone out of the largest smartphone vendor in China by shipments in Q2 2015, and China’s 360 and Letv released smart handsets, driven by the success of some domestic brands. Samsung, the Korea-based brand, was gradually losing its market share in China.

In Q2 2015, the penetration rate of 4G networks reached 20.1% up of over 200 million, 14.8 percentage points higher compared with Q1 2015.

China Mobile composed of 53.4% of China’s mobile network market share, followed by China Unicom (25.27%) and China Telecom (21.3%). 86.6% of 4G network users accessed to the internet through China Mobile, which maintained prominence and expertise compared with China Telecom and China Unicom (11.31% in total).

Compared with Q2 2014, life service, shopping and health apps increased in a large amount. Took mobile shopping apps as example, overseas shopping, mother care, group buying and etc. apps increased obviously.

Mobile gaming apps also increased in a large amount compared with the same period last year. Leisure and mind gaming apps maintained a growth trend of over 40%, followed by network gaming apps and role play apps.

Guangdong province had 12.75% of mobile gaming users in China, followed by Jiangsu province (6.58%) and Henan province (6.26%). Regions in eastern of southern part of China had more mobile gaming users.

More entrepreneurs devoted themselves to the exploration of mobile internet. Beijing, the capital city of China, had a unique advantage and attracted entrepreneurs with its robust internet atmosphere. Other regions, for example, the Yangtze River Delta, also attracted many internet entrepreneurs.

Men and women had nearly total different preference towards mobile apps. Men preferred apps for entertainment, navigation, social communication, reading and etc. while women preferred shopping, healthy, photography, education apps and etc.

Users above 20 years old preferred to play chess and card games, and 5 to 12 years old were the most likely to play sport and adventure games. Users of 13 to 18 years old comprised of the majority of mobile gaming apps users in each kind of mobile apps.

61% mobile apps were downloaded in leisure time, and 44% of which were mobile gaming apps. In non-leisure time, 39% were downloaded, and 63% of those were non gaming apps.

Also read: China Top 100 Mobile Apps in July 2015

In 2015, Chinese online gaming market is expected to reach $22.2 billion (about 142 billion yuan), and officially surpass the U.S. as the world’s largest online gaming market according to data of TalkingData and Newzoo. Mobile gaming revenue of China in 2015 is estimated to reach $6.5 billion (about 41.6 billion yuan), surpassing Japan and the United States to become the world’s largest mobile gaming market.

In 2014, the world’s top ten online gaming countries and regions by revenues are the United States, China, Japan, Korea, Germany, Britain France, Canada, Spain and Italy; and by 2018, China will reach the top; Brazil and Mexico will become the seventh and tenth respectively.

In 2013, China surpassed Japan to become the world’s second-largest online gaming market, following the United States. However, in only wo years, China will take the top spot and reach nearly 2 times that of Japanese online gaming market revenues. By 2016, the Chinese gaming market will increase to $26.2 billion (about 167.7 billion yuan) ahead of the U.S. $22.6 billion (144.6 billion yuan), and expected to reach $30 billion (about 192 billion yuan) in 2018.

Although the Chinese online gaming market represents a very big opportunity, the main revenue of current Chinese game industry still comes from local developers and local games. European and American developers may enter China indirectly during the process. For example, Tencent has been seeking for more developers from Europe and American.

About 4.8% of American mobile gaming players would spend a lot on gaming, compared to 2.6% in China. In terms of demographics, the amounts of highest consumption players between the two countries are similar, but the ratio of women is slightly higher in China. In the U.S., the largest age level of high-spend users (48%) is male between 21 to 35 year-old; in China the largest age level of high-spend users (43%) is also between 21 to 35 years old.

In 2015, top 10 western publishers by Android revenues in China are Supercell, Mojang, Raleigh, PopCap and Gameloft. Top 10 Chinese publishers by Android revenues in China are Tencent, NetEase, Yingan Games, Happy Elements and iDreamsky.

In the Chinese online gaming market, the top 20 games revenues accounts for 74.2% of top 100 total revenues, compared to 61.3% in the U.S.. In 2015, the U.S. market is expected to reach 3.5% increase up to $22 billion in revenue. Despite the common misconception that the U.S. mobile gaming market has reached a saturation stage, the smartphones and tablet games will still maintain a 13.4% and 17.8% annual growth rates respectively and reach $6 billion in revenue (27% of total).

Also read: China Mobile Gaming Market in H1 2015

In H1 2015, the total transaction revenue of China’s gaming market reached 60.51 billion yuan (US$9.73 billion), an increase of 21.9% compared with the same period of last year. The transaction revenue of self-developed online gaming market reached 45.83 billion yuan (US$ 7.37 billion), accounting for 75.7%; and the overseas market revenue was US$1.76 billion, according to GPC, IDC and CNG.

Client-end gaming users reached 134 million in China. And, the actual transaction revenue reached 26.71 billion yuan (US$ 4.29 billion), with an increase of 4.5% compared with the same period in 2014. The number of webpage gaming users in China reached 305 million; the transaction revenue reached 10.28 billion yuan, with an increase of 12.0% YoY. China mobile gaming users reached 366 million; the transaction revenue reached 20.93 billion yuan, with an increase of 67.2%. See more about China’s online gaming market here.

China’s mobile gaming is becoming an essential part in China mobile users’ daily life. Users tdend to favor games on mobile devices rather than on computers. In recent years, China’s gaming industry has been developing reasonably, while the penetration of mobile devices, improvement of 3G/4G network and popularity of social platform lead to the rapid growth of mobile online gaming market in China.

And various categories of mobile games, such as card games, mild games, role play games, music games action games and so on together with many newly-launched games attracted the interests of more and more mobile users, especially female users who didn’t play online games at all. In the second half of 2015, China’s mobile gaming market is expected to attract more users.

Also read: Baidu Revenues Reached US$2.67B in Q2 2015

In Q1 2015, China mobile internet users reached 740 million with increase of 1.6% QoQ and 10.27% YoY, which showed stable growth in the mobile internet market according to data from EnfoDesk.

Also read: 24% of Top Global Mobile Internet Unicorns from China

China online gaming market exceeded 30 billion yuan for the first time and reached 32.08 billion yuan (US$ ) in Q1 2015, an increase of 8% QoQ with 24.7% growth YoY according to iResearch.

2015 will be a year full of opportunities and challenges for China mobile gaming market. China female mobile gaming users still have much potential and their habit of paying for games is expected to develop.

Mobile has increasingly become an important platform for China online gaming market with 31% market share.

Also read: RPG & Card Games Most Popular in China Online Gaming Market in 2014

2015 will be a year full of opportunities and challenges for China mobile gaming market. China female mobile gaming users still have much potential and their habit of paying for games is expected to develop according to DataEye. Various gaming companies are sparing no efforts to attract gaming users.

Card games, as well as mind games, are popular among China mobile gaming users in 2015.

In 2014, heavy games were increasing from 42.11% to 56.85%. Compared to mild games, heavy games are more interesting. Besides, heavy game users are more willing to pay for games which indicates that in 15 years, heavy game’s market share will be bigger. See more about China mobile gaming market in 2014 here.

Also read: Chinese Female Internet Users Insight

Among the list of China top 100 online games by downloads in 2014, role play games and card & chess games were favored by online gaming users in China. RPG games accounted for 43% while card and chess game accounted for 34% in 2014 by total number of downloads.

In 2014, top types of China online games by revenue were card and role play games, which accord with top types of games by downloads in China.

Also read: Mobile Almost A Quarter of China Online Gaming Market in 2014

Recently, the Top 52 app publishers (by revenue) list in 2014 was released by App Annie (a company which do research on mobile app market).On the list, there are 7 China app companies. Tencent ranked the fifth, which is also the top company by revenue in China in 2014. Besides, the other six are IGC China, Kunlun, Longtu Game, Happyelements, Tap4Fun and Perfectworld, which ranked 29, 36, 39, 44, 45, 52 on the list respectively.

See the top 52 list below:

Also read: BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Chinese Brands 2015: 3 of Top 5 are Internet companies

In 2014, total transaction value of China online gaming market was RMB110.81 billion (US$17.95 billion) with an increase of 24.3% YoY. Besides, mobile gaming represented 24.9% market share, which was the first time to surpass browser games in 2014.

In Q4 2014, mobile gaming’s revenue would exceed RMB6 billion according to the research of CNG, IDC and TalkingData.

Also read: China’s Booming Mobile Gaming Market with 330M Users

Mobile gaming has been the most powerful growth engine for China gaming industry. In Q3 2014, total revenue of China mobile gaming market was RMB5.79 billion (US$940.3 million) with a high increase; further, in Q4 2014, the revenue would exceed RMB6 billion according to the research of CNG, IDC and TalkingData.

According to the research, China internet users tend to favor games on mobile device rather than on the desktop. The activeness, as well as frequency on mobile gaming indicated users’ increasing interest in mobile gaming. Especially, the chess and card games were the most active ones in 2014 in China.

Mobile gaming is becoming a habit for many China mobile users’ daily life. See more about China mobile gaming users’ profiles here .

Compared with other market segments in China gaming industry, mobile gaming had the highest growth in sales revenue as well as the number of users.

The number of China’s mobile gaming users was already over 0.33 billion in H1 2014 and it is believed that there is still great potential in online gaming market with its rapid growth in users according to Nielsen.

Also read: China Mobile Internet Statistics 2014

In the first half of 2014, China gaming market users exceeded 400 million with an increase of 9.5% year on year. The total sales value of China gaming market was RMB49.62 billion (US$8.07 billion) with an increase of 46.4% YoY according to CPC & CNG. ZDC‘s latest data also shows on average an iOS game player spend as much as 3 times more than an Android player in 2014.

Total sales value of China client gaming, browser gaming, mobile gaming, social gaming, and single-player gaming were RMB25.57 billion(US$4.16 billion), RMB9.18 billion (US$1.49 billion), RMB12.52 billion (US$2.03 billion), RMB 2.34 billion (US$380.9 million) and RMB10 million (US$1.62 million) respectively.

From January to November in 2014, market share of mobile gaming increased continuously while market share of client gaming is decreasing. As of middle November, client gaming market market share decreased to 53.3% and mobile gaming increased to 33%. However, client gaming still dominated China gaming market in 2014.

2014 is a booming year for China mobile gaming market. According to Nielsen’s research, 47% mobile gaming users play games everyday and 88% of them log in gaming platform for many times per day. China mobile gaming users increased by 62.3% from 2013. As of November 2014, the number of mobile gaming users was 504 million with an increase of 193.5 million. Besides, game usage increased to 62.3% from 2013.

As of 2014, total sales value of China mobile gaming market will exceed RMB20 billion with an increase of 149.4% year on year. It is estimated that total sales value will be RMB35 billion in 2015.

In 2014, there are 500 million mobile gaming users in China which indicates mobile gaming has been one of indispensable entertainment for Chinese. Casual and social games are favored by users in China.

In 2014, 77.4% mobile gaming users use Android OS and only 13.7% of them use iOS to play games according to data of ZDC. However, iOS game users are more willing to pay for entertainment apps, as much as 3 times more than Android game players. Considering large number of Android game users in China, there is great potential in China Android game market.

The peak time for games payment were about 11 a.m-12 p.m and 9 p.m to 10 p.m according to data of 7881.com (a famous game trading platform in China); to strengthen service during peak time may raise users’ second payment possibilities.

61% respondents made Alipay as their first choice to top up game accounts according to the survey of 7881.com. 16% of them pay mobile phone charge for games. Related: China Third Party Online Payment Market in Q3 2014

As of September 30 2014, the top 3 provinces in China by total number of mobile gaming users were Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. 60% China mobile gaming users are from tier-3 cities in 2014 which indicates there are great demand for users in tier-3 cities and more opportunities China mobile gaming market in tier-3 cities and lower ones in the future.

Also read: China Browser Games for Children Market to Exceed 2 Bln Yuan in 2016

In Q3 2014, total revenue of China online gaming market exceeded RMB27.76 billion ($4.53 billion). Mobile gaming revenue was RMB6.98 billion ($1.14 billion) with an increase of 72.8% year on year in Q3 2014 according to data of iResearch, which indicates its growth is slowing down.

The number of China’s mobile gaming users was already over 330 million in H1 2014 and it is believed that there is still great potential in online gaming market with its rapid growth in the number of users according to Nielsen.

China mobile games and gaming companies kept rapid growth in Q3 2014. However, compared with July in 2014, the number of gaming companies decreased in August and September.

From January to September 2014, China’s merger and acquisition value of gaming market exceeded RMB32.39 billion ($5.27 billion). China mobile gaming market accounted for 57.8% and mobile gaming related accounted for 89.6% according to the report of China mobile gaming industry published by iResearch.

The report shows value of China merger and acquisition in mobile gaming market in 2014 surpassed the value in 2013 (RMB16.36 billion).

The report estimates that by the end of 2014, total transaction value of China mobile gaming market will be RMB25.28 billion ($4.13 billion)and of web gaming market will be RMB20.56 billion ($3.36 billion). In 2014, it is the first time for total transaction value of China mobile gaming market to surpass value of web gaming market.

The number of China singe-player game was 4,039 with an increase of 30.7% on Android platform, 966 on jailbreak platform and 7 on App Store with a decrease of 41.7% in 2014.

Tencnet mobile games mainly involve games with low & middle difficulty like chess games, puzzle games, card games and ect, which meet large demand of Wechat and QQ mobile users.

Also read: China Mobile Online Gaming Market in Q2 2014

In Q3 2014, China online gaming market kept stable growth; mobile gaming market’s total transaction value had an increase of 8.2% quarter on quarter. China online gaming companies are positively developing browser games, mobile games in oversea market and having achieved good results.

Total transaction value of China online gaming market exceeded RMB27.76 billion ($4.51 billion) in Q3 2014 with increase of 20.3% year on year and 4.1% quarter on quarter.

Games on desktop were still the key component in China online gaming market, which represented 56.1% market share in Q3 2014. Mobile gaming market is stepping into a stable stage as its growth rate slowed in Q3 2014. Besides, there was a slowdown in number of new games launching among mobile gaming companies in Q3.

In Q3, Perfect World gaming company ranked 3, replacing Shanda Games & Changyou Games (ranked 3 in Q2). China top 5 online gaming companies by total revenue remained Tencent, Netease, Perfect World, Shanda Games and Changyou Games in Q3.

Tencent is the only one whose business structure is similar to online gaming industry structure, covering desktop gaming, browser gaming and mobile gaming market. Its Wechat platform featured with social elements can also attract more mobile game users.

According to the 2014 Second Quarter Mobile Game Market Analysis Report published by Analysys International, CMGE again ranks first among China’s mobile game publishers with 19.3% of market share in China (in terms of gross billings).

In Q3, mobile gaming transaction value was RMB6.98 billion ($1.13 billion) with an increase of 72.8% from the same period of last year. China mobile online gaming users exceeded 321.8 million in Q2 2014 with an increase of 6.4% from prior quarter according to data of GPC IDC and CNG. Influenced by the slowdown of growth rate in smart mobile device shipment and gaming users, China mobile gaming market’s driving force transferred from the size of user base increase to ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) increase in Q3 2014.

As of September 2014, the number of China mobile games and gaming companies exceeded 4,342 and 2,182. Android games and gaming companies both surpassed the ones in Appstore and iOS market. In Q3 2014, China mobile games and gaming companies both had rapid growth quarterly.

Driven by China’s summer holiday (from July to September), gaming companies increased ads placement which stimulated rapid growth of gaming advertisers and gaming products.

In China browser gaming market, the numbers of platforms, games and developers increased steadily in Q3 2014.

From Q2 2014, the number of browser game advertisers and browser games had sharp decrease.

Also read: China Mobile Gaming Market to Reach 2 Bln Yuan in 2014

China Mobile Games and Entertainment Group (“CMGE”) reported revenue of RMB357.6 million (US$58.3 million), compared with RMB98.1 million in Q3 2013 andRMB274.6 million in Q2 2014. Revenues were 264.5% higher year-over-year and 30.2% higher quarter-over-quarter.

CMGE net income was RMB75.2 million (US$12.3 million), compared with net income of RMB25.6 million in the third quarter of 2013 and RMB54.9 million in the second quarter of 2014. Net income was 193.8% higher year-over-year and 37.0% higher quarter-over-quarter.

Total paying user accounts of CMGE for social games were 6.2 million, compared with 2.8 million in Q3 2013 and 5.0 million in Q2 2014. Average revenue per paying user account (“ARPU”) for social games was RMB45.9, compared with RMB24.9 in the third quarter of 2013 and RMB40.1 in the second quarter of 2014.

Total paying user accounts for single-player games (excluding single-player game bundles) were 4.0 million, compared with 2.6 million in Q3 2013 and 3.7 million in Q2 2014. ARPU for single-player games (excluding single-player game bundles) was RMB17.2, compared with RMB4.3 in the third quarter of 2013 and RMB15.6 in the second quarter of 2014.

Total subscriptions for single-player game bundles were 0.6 million in the third quarter of 2014, compared with 1.6 million in the third quarter of 2013 and 0.9 million in the second quarter of 2014. Average revenue per subscription for single-player game bundles was RMB4.9, compared with RMB5.5 in the third quarter of 2013 and RMB3.7 in the second quarter of 2014.

Average monthly active users (“MAUs”) for the third quarter of 2014 were 36.6 million, compared with 15.3 million in Q3 2013 and 20.6 million in Q2 2014. Average daily active users (“DAUs”) 8for the third quarter of 2014 were 5.3 million, compared with 6.4 million in the third quarter of 2013 and 3.7 million in the second quarter of 2014.

In the third quarter, CMGE launched their massively multiplayer online action role playing game (“MMOARPG”) The New Legend and War Valley II and has been intensifying its R&D efforts working on 17 self-developed products, including Naruto, One-Piece, Samurai Spirits, Shaolin Temple, Feng Zhong Qi Yuan, Ikkyu San, and Hello Kitty. We plan to begin launching these self-developed products beginning in the fourth quarter of this year.

In September, CMGE launched MMOARPG game, The New Legend, for which they have obtained the IP rights from Shanda Games. The game has incorporated an interactive tool called “YAYA Yu Yin” to facilitate real time communication among players.

The New Legend was ranked number three in the iOS paid rankings, number seven in free rankings and number 20 in gross billings rankings with average DAUs of over 100,000 for a period of time in September, while gross billings for October were more than RMB10 million. In addition, in October, our MMOARPG game, War Valley II, was launched on four major Korean platforms and was ranked number 1 in free rankings in T-store, number 1 in download rankings in Google Play and number 1 in popularity rankings in T-store and Kakao Talk. Daily gross billings for War Valley II have reached over RMB0.5 million per day on Korean platforms since launch.

In addition, CMGE will conduct closed beta testing on self-developed game Feng Zhong Qi Yuan, for which they have obtained exclusive rights to base the game on the TV drama of the same name. The TV drama debuted on October 1, 2014 and has been very popular in the Chinese TV rankings.

In addition to these new product launches, their existing self-developed card games have continued to record strong growth. Our single-player games such as Er Zhan Xiong Ying have been the driving growth in our single-player game category. They believe that the performance of their self-developed games in 2014 provide strong support for CMGE’s position as one of the world’s top leaders for mobile game development. For example, our self-developed single-player games revenue for the third quarter of 2014 has increased 244.7% compared to the prior quarter and 104.1% compared to the same quarter last year.

CMGE have pre-installed proprietary game center application, as well as a series of self-developed poker games on over 60 million handsets as of the end of third quarter of 2014. The game center application has also been launched on many free Wi-Fi environments, including shopping malls, buses and railway stations. Although these Wi-Fi partnerships are still in the early stage, CMGE believe user acquisition resulting from this strategic alliance with Chinese public Wi-Fi leaders will generate a positive impact in the upcoming few quarters.

According to the 2014 Second Quarter Mobile Game Market Analysis Report published by Analysys International, CMGE again ranks first among China’s mobile game publishers with 19.3% of market share in China (in terms of gross billings), an increase of 1.2% from the prior quarter. In August, CMGE’s Crisis Action, one of the world’s first FPS competitive mobile game, and Dance Everyday, a unique 3D dance-themed game, were selected to be official mobile game titles in the WECG.

For the fourth quarter of 2014, CMGE expects its total revenues to be between RMB380 million and RMB400 million.

The number of China’s mobile gaming users was already over 0.33 billion in H1 2014 and it is believed that there is still great potential in online gaming market with its rapid growth in users according to Nielsen. Total number of mobile gaming users on smartphones reached 190 million in 2013 according to iResearch.

Read more: China Mobile Gaming Market Snapshot in 2013

As of June 2014, the usage rate of mobile games in China was 47.8% with an increase of 4.7%. Mobile gaming is becoming a habit for many China mobile users’ daily life.

Total transaction value of China mobile gaming market is expected to be over RMB20 billion ($3.27 billion) in 2014. Furthermore, it is estimated that the number of total value will exceed RMB40-50 billion in 2015 with an average growth rate of 100%.

Compared with the transaction value of China mobile gaming market in 2012, it doubled in 2013. In 2014, China mobile gaming market is still growing rapidly.

As of September 30 2014, the top 3 provinces in China by total number of mobile gaming users were Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. With popularity of smartphone, China’s middle and western parts will show their potential in mobile gaming market in the future.

Over 39% mobile gaming users play single games while only 10.89% of them play online games which indicates China mobile gaming users tend to play games with Wifi to save large data cost.

Card games are favorite of most China mobile gaming users. Shooting and fighting games are popular among heavy game players.

Most mobile gaming users favored playing online mobile games with Wifi, accounting for 48% of total mobile gaming users. And with the popularity of 4G and traffic promotion of three telco operators (China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom), traffic issue can not be a big concern in China mobile gaming market.

Mobile phones based on Android are the major ones for Chinese mobile gaming users, accounting for 78.1%, followed by iOS and Windows Phone.

In Q3 2014, China mobile gaming users’ total spend on mobile gaming was much more than the spend in the same period in prior year. The rapid development of online mobile trading platform, popularity of 3G/ 4G and powerful marketing of social network gave mobile gaming market powerful strength.

Also read: China Mobile Online Gaming Market in Q2 2014

Mobile devices’ penetration, mobile network’s improvement as well as social network’s booming lead to rapid growth of mobile online gaming market in China.

The number of China’s mobile gaming users was already over 0.33 billion in H1 2014 and it is believed that there is still great potential in online gaming market with its rapid growth in users according to Nielsen. Total number of mobile gaming users on smartphones reached 190 million in 2013 according to iResearch.

In H1 2014, total revenue of China mobile online gaming market exceeded more than RMB12.52 million (US$ 2.03 million) with a an increase of 394.9% YoY. Large number of users as well as part of users’ paying habits for gaming contribute to good performance of China mobile online gaming market.

Leisure & mind, chess & card and strategy games are top three popular games favored by Chinese Internet users in 2013 and 2014.

According to Nielsen’s research, 47% mobile gaming users play games everyday and 88% of them log in gaming platform for many times per day. 94% of users play games for over 10 minutes each time. All above indicate that mobile gaming advertisements can effectively touch users.

69% of China mobile gaming users do not reject advertisement on mobile gaming platform and 51% of them can remember effective ads information.

Also read: China Mobile Gaming Market Snapshot in 2013

China mobile online gaming market developed rapidly in 2013. Wechat users exceeded 438 million in China in Q2 2014 and with launch of Wechat’s social gaming platform as well as its games featured with social elements, it will attract more and more mobile gaming users in China.

Chinese gaming users who play on Wechat’s social gaming platform many times per day account for 30.3%. As main categories of games on Wechat are about shooting, running, flying with low difficulty level, 33.4% users play for 10-30 minutes.

We can see when mobile users choose a gaming platform, friends’ presence are the most influential reason, accounting for 49.7%.

On Wechat’s social gaming platform, friends can challenge each within the game and communicate with each other at the same time, which satisfies users’ social and entertainment needs.

We can see the major reason for users to play Wechat games is to compete for the top ranks with friends, which demonstrates Wechat’s powerful social and entertainment features.

China mobile online gaming users exceeded 321.8 million in Q2 2014 with an increase of 6.4% from prior quarter according to data of GPC IDC and CNG.

Also read: China Mobile Online Gaming Market in Q2 2014

China mobile online gaming users exceeded 321.8 million in Q2 2014 with an increase of 6.4% from prior quarter according to data of GPC IDC and CNG. 

Total number of mobile gaming users on smartphones reached 190 million in 2013. In 2013, the total value of mobile gaming market exceeded RMB 11.24 billion ($1.83 billion), with an increase of 246.9% from 2012.

We can see from Q2 2012 to Q2 2014, total mobile online gaming users increased by almost 244 million in China which shows mobile online gaming market is booming nowadays. Rovio’s Angry Birds Stella is also recently available in China via Alibaba mobile apps.

China mobile online gaming users exceeded 321.8 million in Q2 2014 with an increase of 6.4% from prior quarter according to data of GPC IDC and CNG. Baidu, 360 and Tencent were top 3 Android mobile online gaming providers in China mobile gaming market in Q2 2014.

With fast development of mobile online games and well crafted marketing strategy in China, it is estimated that the number of users will further increase.

Also read: Top Mobile Browsers in China

2013 was a year for mobile gaming market development and the total number of mobile gaming users have accounted for over 50% of all the mobile internet users.

In 2013, the total value of mobile gaming market exceeded RMB 11.24 billion($1.83 billion), with an increase of 246.9% from 2012. It is estimated that mobile gaming development has its great potential in gaming market in China according to the report of China Gaming industry in 2013.

Revenue form online games on client-side was RMB53.66 million ($8.73 million) in China online gaming market, representing the most market share. Revenue from mobile games was RMB11.24 million ($1.82 million) and it is estimated that its market share by revenue can be increased continuously in China.

There were 89 million players in mobile gaming market in 2012 while by the end of 2013, it exceeded 310 million with an increase of 248.5%. It is obvious that mobile gaming has been a hotspot in China.

Total number of mobile gaming users on smartphones reached 190 million in 2013 according to iResearch. It is estimated mobile gaming market share of China gaming market will continue the rapid growth in 2014.

Also read: Top Mobile Browsers in China