While the market in the country is currently about half that of the United States, its growth rate is tremendous.
There is no doubt that mobile gaming is huge in China, despite the fact that it represents only a fraction of its complete video games market, and the fact that it is only about half of the size of the American market.
What makes the difference is the very rapid growth rate that the Chinese mobile games market is experiencing.
Mobile gaming is far lower, per capita, in the Chinese market than in the U.S. but the potential is only just starting to be tapped and the gap is about to close exceptionally rapidly. Currently, it is estimate that the market there is at around $9.7 billion (60 billion yuan). It has been consoles and, to a much greater extent, PC games that have been leading the way in terms of revenue in the country. However, the prediction now is that when compared to mobile devices, PC games may be about to lose their top position. This doesn’t necessarily mean that PC has no future, but it instead means that there is a great deal more room to grow in mobile.
Mobile gaming is accessible to a far larger number of people that haven’t tapped into it yet, in China.
The growth in mobile gaming has been an amazing 400 percent, from having been 2.5 billion yuan a couple of years ago, to 125.2 billion yuan, last year. With an estimated three times more smartphone and tablet based gamers than there are on PCs, that shows that there is still quite a distance for mobile to go before it has reached its maturity.