In the first half of 2014, China gaming market users exceeded 400 million with an increase of 9.5% year on year. The total sales value of China gaming market was RMB49.62 billion (US$8.07 billion) with an increase of 46.4% YoY according to CPC & CNG. ZDC‘s latest data also shows on average an iOS game player spend as much as 3 times more than an Android player in 2014.
Total sales value of China client gaming, browser gaming, mobile gaming, social gaming, and single-player gaming were RMB25.57 billion(US$4.16 billion), RMB9.18 billion (US$1.49 billion), RMB12.52 billion (US$2.03 billion), RMB 2.34 billion (US$380.9 million) and RMB10 million (US$1.62 million) respectively.
From January to November in 2014, market share of mobile gaming increased continuously while market share of client gaming is decreasing. As of middle November, client gaming market market share decreased to 53.3% and mobile gaming increased to 33%. However, client gaming still dominated China gaming market in 2014.
2014 is a booming year for China mobile gaming market. According to Nielsen’s research, 47% mobile gaming users play games everyday and 88% of them log in gaming platform for many times per day. China mobile gaming users increased by 62.3% from 2013. As of November 2014, the number of mobile gaming users was 504 million with an increase of 193.5 million. Besides, game usage increased to 62.3% from 2013.
As of 2014, total sales value of China mobile gaming market will exceed RMB20 billion with an increase of 149.4% year on year. It is estimated that total sales value will be RMB35 billion in 2015.
In 2014, there are 500 million mobile gaming users in China which indicates mobile gaming has been one of indispensable entertainment for Chinese. Casual and social games are favored by users in China.
In 2014, 77.4% mobile gaming users use Android OS and only 13.7% of them use iOS to play games according to data of ZDC. However, iOS game users are more willing to pay for entertainment apps, as much as 3 times more than Android game players. Considering large number of Android game users in China, there is great potential in China Android game market.
The peak time for games payment were about 11 a.m-12 p.m and 9 p.m to 10 p.m according to data of 7881.com (a famous game trading platform in China); to strengthen service during peak time may raise users’ second payment possibilities.
61% respondents made Alipay as their first choice to top up game accounts according to the survey of 7881.com. 16% of them pay mobile phone charge for games. Related: China Third Party Online Payment Market in Q3 2014
As of September 30 2014, the top 3 provinces in China by total number of mobile gaming users were Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. 60% China mobile gaming users are from tier-3 cities in 2014 which indicates there are great demand for users in tier-3 cities and more opportunities China mobile gaming market in tier-3 cities and lower ones in the future.
Also read: China Browser Games for Children Market to Exceed 2 Bln Yuan in 2016
