China Still World’s Largest Gaming Market With USD24.6 Billion Operating Revenue

In 2016, the world's computer game operating revenue exceeded USD100 billion for the first time and China exceeded America to become the world's game capital.

According to the report from London-based venture capital company Atomico, China had 600 million game players and its operating revenue of games, including PC, web, mobile, and video games, reached USD24.6 billion in 2016, which made it the largest gaming market in the world. In 2016, the operating revenue of the global gaming industry was USD101.1 billion and the number was USD91.8 billion in 2015.

China's gaming revenue growth was largely promoted by the Apple Store. In 2016, the world's iOS gaming revenue was USD18 billion, of which the Chinese market accounted for 31%. In 2012, the level was only 3%.

In 2016, the number of world's game players topped two billion and mobile games were the leading platforms in this market. In this sector, the average revenue contributed by each Chinese user exceeded that of American users.

The report also showed that 93% of Chinese users' gaming expenses was earned by games developed by Chinese enterprises in 2016. In comparison, 56% of expenses of American users flowed to the games developed by American enterprises; while the ratio was only 36% in Europe. This also means that the Chinese gaming market was currently limited to Chinese-developed games.

In addition, Atomico predicted that the global gaming industry operating revenue would reach USD109 billion in 2017, including 42% from mobile games. By 2020, the market scale would reach USD129 billion and mobile games would contribute 51% of the total operating revenue.