Tencent dominates China's mobile gaming market

China’s total online gaming market was worth 64.33 billion yuan in the first quarter 2018, with YoY growth of 10.3 percent. After an exceptionally successful 2017, market growth has slowed down, partially due to the government tightening policies for the Chinese gaming market. Thanks to increasing per capita disposable income and well-developed online payment methods, however, players are still expected to spend increasingly more time and money on online games in China. Market revenue is forecast to grow for at least another five years.

The proportion of mobile gaming in China’s online video games market has been growing and reached 66 percent in Q1 2018. This shift will most likely stabilize in the near future. At the beginning of 2018, China’s online giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., held more than half the mobile gaming market in the country, followed by internet technology company NetEase according to iResearch. The second-tier companies jointly accounted for approximately 30 percent of the market and had to endure fierce competition with each other in Q1 2018.