The world spends US$109 billion on video games, and the Chinese are the biggest players
Mainland market predicted to be worth US$27.5 billion this year, making it the world’s leader
The global video games market is forecast to cross the US$100-billion mark this year, driven by the huge appetite for online and mobile content of mainland China’s more than half-a-billion gamers.
The mainland market is predicted to be worth US$27.5 billion this year, making it the world’s leader as global market revenue advances to US$109 billion from US$99.6 billion last year, according to a new report from research firm Newzoo.
It said nearly half of the mainland’s estimated 565 million gamers this year are expected to be playing on all three gaming platforms – console, personal computer and mobile.
“The phase that the [global] games market is now entering is redefining how we talk about our industry, audience and future,” said Newzoo chief executive Peter Warman in a statement.
The Newzoo report pointed out that Chinese gamers “remain very interested in the top Western personal computer [video game] franchises, even though the majority of the most popular games [on the mainland] is home grown”.
Internet giant Tencent Holdings, the world’s largest games company by revenue, was credited by the report for opening the door for popular Western games on the mainland, which ensures that “the success of Western intellectual property [in terms of games] in China will lead to new truly global franchises”.
