On the move: Mobile gamers now outnumber PC players in China

The number of mobile gamers in China is expected to hit 192 million by the end of this year, according to market researcher Niko Partners. This means that the number of mobile gamers now likely exceeds the number of PC players in China.

The number is part of a five-year forecast that Niko has prepared. Mobile game revenue in China is expected to grow sixfold from $600 million in 2011 to a few billion dollars in the next five years. China is expected to have 180 million PC games by the end of this year.

“Niko projects fast growth in mobile games revenue in China led by the rising adoption of 3G usage, soaring sales of smartphones from a wide array of vendors, and the desire to play entertaining, inexpensive games on these smart mobile devices,” said Lisa Cosmas Hanson, the managing partner of Niko Partners. “Mobile games and web-browser games are the two buzzword segments in China’s games market this year, and Chinese game companies are racing to deliver their games on multiple platforms to satisfy gamer demand in every way possible.”

Cosmas Hanson said that the Chinese mobile game market has no clear dominant company yet. Social casual games are popular now, while mobile hardcore games are just getting started. Also, many mobile users have more than one mobile phone, but they play games on only one of them.

[Photo credit: blogspot]

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