Chinese mobile game market sees consumer spending rise by 250% since 2015

The value of the Chinese mobile game market has grown by 250 percent since 2015, with consumers in the region dropping around $11 billion on mobile titles during 2017.

That figure comes from App Annie's 2017 Retrospective report, and means China is now the third most valuable mobile games market by a significant margin (in terms of consumer spend). 

As the graph below shows, there's a definitive 'top three' comprised of Japan, the United States, and China, and that trend looks set to continue in the future.

Both the U.S. and Japan have seen similar growth in recent years, with consumer spending rising by 60 percent in both countries.

That upward shift means the Japanese mobile games market is currently worth over $12 billion, with the U.S. market pipping China to the post with a valuation of slightly over $11 billion. 

What's really interesting is that China practically matched the U.S. despite the fact that consumers in the region can't currently download games through the Google Play store. 

With China quite evidently on the up, it probably won't surprise you that one of the most popular titles of 2017 hailed from the country. 

Tencent's hit MOBA Honor of Kings was the most played mobile title in the world during Q4 2017, and averaged 100 million monthly active users throughout the year.

You can find out more about the global app market by downloading the full report from App Annie.