Chinese gaming revenues surge on mobile growth

Driven by the booming mobile internet sector, top Chinese gaming companies saw significant growth in game revenues during the first half of 2017, according to gaming industry consultancy Newzoo's latest global games market report.

Chinese video game giant Tencent Holdings Ltd has taken the top spot in the ranking of Newzoo's Top 25 Companies by Game Revenues list, generating $7.4 billion in the first half of this year, a 50 percent increase over the same period last year.

Newzoo said the popularity of Tencent's mobile game King of Glory, which attained 200 million players in China alone, has made big bucks for Shenzhen-based Tencent this year. Chinese gaming industry database Gamma Data Corp estimated that King of Glory raked in around 6 billion yuan ($911 million) in the second quarter in the domestic market, and its transactions would hit more than 22 billion yuan for the full year.

Chinese leading gaming outfit NetEase Inc continued to rank as seventh on the list, recording a staggering 53 percent year-on-year increase in revenues to hit $2.9 billion in the first half of 2017.

Newzoo forecasted that, driven by popular role-playing game Onmyoji and other mobile games, the Hangzhou-based gaming giant would be a strong contender for the global top five for the full year.

Due to the good performance in particularly PC and mobile gaming sectors, Chinese movie and gaming company Perfect World Co Ltd has made its first appearance on the list at 20th place, earning $442 million in game revenues in the first half this year with a 90 percent year-on-year growth.

Newzoo noted in the report that mobile gaming accounted for 42 percent of the total game revenues by top 10 companies, suggesting that the mobile gaming sector will play a more significant role in supporting total gaming revenues.

Dong Zhen, entertainment analyst at internet consultancy Analysys in Beijing, said powered by the large user base, China's mobile gaming sector has entered a new phase of rapid growth.

"By 2020, China's mobile gaming sector will evolve from a upstart emerging market to mature market."