China to overtake US as world's largest mobile gaming market by 2016
China will overtake the US as the world's largest mobile gaming market in 2016, according to a new white paper released this week by the Global Mobile Game Confederation.
Citing data from market research firm Newzoo, GMGC predicted that revenue from mobile games in China will reach US$7.7 billion in 2016, compared to US$7.3 billion in the US.
"The fastest growth in mobile games is happening in China and the surrounding Southeast Asian market," said Peter Warman, co-founder and chief executive of Newzoo.
Global mobile gaming revenue is expected to hit US$30.1 billion in 2015, up from US$24.5 billion this year, according to GMGC. The report predicted that by 2017, worldwide revenue from mobile games will reach US$40.4 billion. Global box office revenues, by comparison, are projected to be US$44.5 billion that year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
"Mobile games will grow to account for one third of the global games industry in 2015," the report said.
The Asia-Pacific region remained by far the largest mobile market in the world last year, with more than 760 million mobile gamers generating US$13.6 billion in revenue in 2014. The US remained the largest single-country market, at US$5.2 billion.
