Data & Research

New Chinese report claims its Android gaming market will be worth $3.6 billion in 2015

Newzoo and TalkingData launch monthly report

New Chinese report claims its Android gaming market will be worth $3.6 billion in 2015

Thanks to the prominence of thirdparty Android app stores, the Chinese mobile market has always been difficult to quantify.

But according to Dutch market intelligence Newzoo and its Chinese equivalent TalkingData, accurate data is now available.

The two companies have teamed up to create The China Mobile Games Monitor, which will be updated monthly and cover the performance of all devices, app stores, games, genres and publishers in China.

The numbers

To kick off the project, the two companies have released some initial figures.

They suggest local Chinese Android app stores in China will generate $3.6 billion in 2015; which is a majority of country's predicted $6.5 billion market size.

Interestingly, they reckon the bulk of this revenue comes from four of the 20 biggest Android stores, suggesting this market is consolidating quickly.

In turn, these predictions scale to value the Chinese market as the world's biggest market for smartphone and tablet games, ahead of the US, a market which they predicted will be worth $6 billion in revenues in 2015.

Scaling up, Newzoo and TalkingData place gaming revenues from Android at 48 percent, with iOS at $12.5 billion, of which $2.3 billion will come from the 257 million active iPhones and iPads in China.

Key players

As for the companies making the most money, it goes without saying that Tencent rules to roost. In May 2015, it published 29 of the top 100 grossing Android games and 59 of the top 100 grossing iOS games in China.

Thanks to the success of Meng Huan Xi You (Fantasy Westward Journey), NetEase was in second place for iOS in May 2015, while iDreamsky was second in China for Android.

If you want more detail, The China Mobile Games Monitor will be available on a monthly basis for available for $17,990 for 12 months or as a premium service priced at $47,990 for a full year.

Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.