The gaming industry in China recorded revenues of over $13 billion dollars, which is a year-over-year increase of 38-percent, according to Games in Asia (via GI.biz).
Most of that revenue – 64.5-percent, or about $8.7 billion – came from client-based PC games. Browser games earned over $2 billion, while mobile was responsible for $1.8 billion. Social games generated just shy of $1 billion, while console games took in a meager $15 million. In total, PC games accounted for more than 80-percent of revenue generated in China in 2013.
Although overseas developers are still doing solid business, games developed in China also saw a healthy spike with growth of over 30-percent year-over-year, accounting for $7.8 billion.
Overall, the jump in percentage is the biggest increase of the Chinese gaming industry since 2009 when revenues jumped from $3 billion to $4.2 billion, an increase of 41.6 percent. The Chinese gaming market isn’t at the level of the US gaming market yet, but it is catching up. It will likely be awhile still until we know the exact end of year numbers, but some predictions put gaming revenues in the US at $20.5 billion for 2013. Other estimates claim the worldwide totals could reach over $90 billion, although that was an early estimate made in October.
Regardless of what the exact revenue numbers end up being, 2013 was a good year for the gaming industry around the world.
