China Video Game Sales Hit Record $44bn

Sales in China’s domestic video game market, the second-largest in the world after the US, reached record sales figures of 325.8 billion yuan ($44.8bn, £35.5bn) this year on growth of 7.53 percent year-on-year, aided by the release of high-profile titles, the country’s gaming industry association said.

The figures were the highest since figures began being recorded in 2003, said the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association in a report released to coincide with its annual conference in Beijing.

The number of gamers rose 0.94 percent to 674 million, the association said.

“The scale of the domestic market has been steadily increasing, with new mobile titles and single-player titles making outstanding contributions,” the association said in its report.

Industry growth

It said public policy had become more supportive following a crackdown on the industry three years ago and public opinion had continued to improve.

This year’s growth was slower than the 14 percent growth recorded in 2023, when the domestic market reached 303bn yuan, as consumer spending recovered from a post-Covid slowdown and a significant number of new titles were released.

Mobile games, making up 73 percent of the total, grew 5 percent this year to 238.2bn yuan, down from 17.5 percent growth last year.

PC games, making up 20.9 percent of the total, reached 68bn yuan in sales.

Overseas sales of China-developed games grew a significant 13.4 percent to $18.6bn this year, the first sales increase in three years.

The US remained the largest foreign market for mobile Chinese games in revenue terms, making up 31.1 percent of the market, followed by 17.3 percent for Japan and 8.9 percent for South Korea.

Saudi Arabia emerged into the top 10 markets for Chinese mobile games this year, as the country invests heavily in gaming and esports.

International releases

Sales figures both domestically and abroad were boosted by the release of major titles such as Black Myth: Wukong, which was hailed as China’s first AAA game and last week won the Best Action Game at The Game Awards 2024 in Los Angeles, considered the Oscars of the video game industry.

The game was developed by Game Science, backed by Tencent, one of the world’s biggest video game companies by revenue.

In 2021 Chinese authorities launched a wide-ranging crackdown that affected the video game industry amongst other fields, and while that effort has since abated, the country’s media regulator last December announced further guidelines aimed at curbing excessive spending in online games.