China set to become largest video-game market in the world this year
Mobile gaming is also predicted to become more lucrative than PC and console platforms, according to latest Global Games Market Report
Gamers worldwide are expected to generate a total of US$99.6 billion in revenue for the video games industry this year, an 8.5 per cent increase from 2015, with China accounting for a quarter of that income, according to the latest Global Games Market Report released today.
Published by digital games market research firm Newzoo, the annual report also says mobile gaming will, for the first time, take a larger share than PC or console platforms, with US$36.9 billion.
With a projected US$24.4 billion in revenues this year, China is expected to be the largest games market in the world, ahead of the US, whose anticipated market size is US$23.5 billion.
But the report also points out that China’s PC market is showing signs of a slowdown, “with a 4 per cent increase compared to the previous 16 per cent as the success of ‘core’ mobile titles is starting to cannibalise PC game spending”.
By contrast, the mobile gaming sector in China is leapfrogging forward faster than estimated and is predicted to reach US$10 billion by the end of 2016, up 41 per cent from last year’s US$7.1 billion. “China will remain the largest games market for the foreseeable future, growing to US$28.9 billion by 2019,” says the Global Games Market Report.