The Chinese video game market is growing rapidly. According to the forecast of the analytical company Niko Partners, by 2025 the turnover of the mobile and PC segments alone will reach $55.1 billion. This is $12 billion more than in 2020.
Gaming market revenue and the number of gamers in China for 2020, 2021 and 2025
Key conclusions of analysts:
- In 2020, mobile and PC games brought the Chinese industry $43.1 billion.
- the bulk of this amount was generated by mobile — $29.2 billion. Note that this is also 25% of the global revenue of mobile gaming. Segment growth in China was 30.9% compared to 2019;
- sales of PC titles* last year brought in $3.9 billion, which is 4.9% less in annual terms. According to analysts, the decline occurred due to the massive closure of Internet cafes at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. But already in 2021, these institutions should reopen;
- by the end of 2025, mobile’s revenue will reach $40.5 billion, and PC segment revenue will reach $14.5 billion.;
- In 2020, there were about 681.7 million mobile gamers in China. By 2025, this number will grow to 748 million people;
- as for PC players, last year there were 325.4 million people, and in 2025 there will be 335.3 million. As noted in Niko Partners, most of these gamers also play on their smartphones;
- In 2020, the lockdown led to a sharp increase in engagement and spending in the Chinese market. For example, against this background, ARPU and ARPPU indicators increased (although analysts did not indicate how much). Niko Partners suggested that these indicators will continue to grow;
- revenue from the sale of mobile and PC games abroad also increased — by 36.7% compared to 2019;
- Tencent and NetEase remained the two leading Chinese publishers. But they faced significant competition from other tech giants (for example, ByteDance) and medium-sized studios (such as miHoYo, the authors of the hit Genshin Impact);
- The popularity of Genshin Impact has had a significant impact on the market, and now analysts expect more AAA projects to appear on the market.
*analysts also took into account the sale of games on Steam, which officially did not exist in the country until 2021.