An Update of the Global and China Game Market [Report]

The latest report released by Newzoo summarizing the data of the global game market. Along with the statistics from the report, I will provide some insights into the key trends of the China game industry.

The global game industry is estimated to generate 99.6 billion USD by the end of 2016, an increase of 8.5% compared to 2015. China, the No.1 game market from 2015 (you can read the details here), individually shares around 25% of the estimated global revenue in 2016.

The rapid growth of the global game industry will continue with a 6.6% compound annual growth rate towards 2019. By then, the revenue is expected to reach 118.6 billion USD, with 44.3%, or 52.5 billion USD, comes from the mobile segment.

2015 – 2019 Global Game Market Revenue Distribution (Source: Newzoo)

In year 2016, the Asia Pacific region will generate 46.6 billion USD, or 47% of the global game revenue, with a 10.7% increase. China will continue its leading position and will contribute around 24.4 billion USD. The PC game market in China shows a slower growing trend from 16% in 2015 to 4% expected in 2016. On the flip side, the mobile game segment growing remarkably fast with an expected growth rate of 40% to hit 10.0 billion USD in 2016. One of the reasons for that trend is that many successful traditional PC online titles had transferred to the mobile spaces. That means a decent amount of PC online gamers had moved to the mobile segment, bringing along their spending behavior to mobile.  Overall, the China game market will keep its No.1 position towards year 2019, generating 28.9 billion USD by then.

2016 China Game Revenue Contributed One Quarter of Global Game Revenue (Source: Newzoo)

2012 – 2019 Mobile Game Market Share in China (Source: Newzoo)

When looking at the global picture, nearly 70% of revenue will still come from the two revenue generators, PC and mobile. Mobile games in 2016 will generate 36.9 billion USD, or 37% of the global.

2016 Global Game Market Revenue Distribution (Source: Newzoo)

One noticeable fact is that the VR segment is still on its way to take a place in the global game market. The incubation is undergoing and in the long run, VR will change the interaction method among players. My personal expectation is that, more influence of VR on gaming would be seen in 2018 (you can read the details here).

Obviously the game market is growing strongly all over the world, especially in China, at this moment and in the future. This trend implies that getting into the China market is an appropriate strategic move. However, the highly competitive game market, complicated publishing channels, and the recent changes in regulations and policies all make it even harder to get into the China game market. I was speaking in a panel at Casual Connect last Tuesday (7/19/2016), talking about China companies looking for investment or M&A opportunities in the west. While China powerhouses are seeking for opportunities getting into the western market, it also opens the gate for western game companies or teams to partner with established companies in China to expand your territory into the promising China game market. I am going to talk about my afterthought of the panel section in my next article, stay tuned.

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About Seasun Inc 

Seasun is a leading Chinese online games publisher focused on creating high quality games/game engines that push the boundaries of player experience in action entertainment. The company is also involved in small-medium sized investments for game studios worldwide. We have recently started up our U.S. studio in Redwood City, CA to create top quality content for the western market.

Seasun has shipped many successful titles, including the popular MMORPG series JX (http://jx3.xoyo.com/), the MMOARPG titles First Myth (http://fs.xoyo.com/index1) and CQ (http://cq.xoyo.com/), along with our FPS MAT (http://xd.xoyo.com/). The “JX” series has grossed more than $250 million and has achieved a daily active user count of 3.3 million. Our first game for the western market is Relics of Gods (http://rog.seasungames.com/). We are currently building a special team of highly talented people to create the technology for our next-generation MMOARPG at this studio.

About Kingsoft

Kingsoft, Seasun’s parent company, is publicly traded in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (SEHK: 3888) with market value of 3.8 billion USD. Kingsoft has created 3 other subsidiaries alongside Seasun: Cheetah Mobile (NYSE: CMCM), WPS Office, and Kingsoft Cloud Service. Kingsoft has over 4,000 employees worldwide.