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New mobile games spurred on Chinese publisher NetEase to $4 billion in revenue in 2016

A stellar year for the firm

New mobile games spurred on Chinese publisher NetEase to $4 billion in revenue in 2016

Chinese publisher NetEase had a significant year in 2016 for its games business as revenues grew by over 60% year-on-year to $4 billion.

In the previous fiscal year the company reported earnings of more than $2.5 billion.

The publisher launched 40 new mobile games in 2016. It put its growing revenues down to some key new titles such as Onmyoji, which ranked in the top 10 top grossing games on China’s App Store and was also said to be the highest selling app in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

At Japanese version of the game has since been launched and an English version is set to arrive in the next few months.

Stellar year

Other top performers for NetEase were highlighted as Tianxia III mobile, OverOcean, HIT and Fantasy Westward Journey. The latter title has more than 100 million registered users worldwide.

News of a stellar year for the Chinese publisher comes after App Annie data showed the firm was the top grossing mobile games company in the world in October 2016.

Three of its games, Onmyoji, Fantasy Westward Journey and Ghost, were in the top 10 grossing titles worldwide during that month.

A report from Newzoo also showed similar findings, with four of the publisher’s titles in the top grossing charts on iOS in China during October 2016..


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Craig Chapple is a freelance analyst, consultant and writer with specialist knowledge of the games industry. He has previously served as Senior Editor at PocketGamer.biz, as well as holding roles at Sensor Tower, Nintendo and Develop.