75% of the 250 most downloaded mobile games in China in 2016 were developed locally, according to Sensor Tower.

The data comes from a new study that suggests China is walling itself off from the rest of the world in terms of game development. This is particularly relevant following the ban on all future South Korea-developed games in China.

The study found that 39% of the top 250 downloaded games in 2014 were developed outside of China. This number has fallen steadily over the last two years, dropping to 33% in 2015 and 25% in 2016.

Local focus

To put this in perspective, 42% of the top 250 downloaded games in the US were developed locally. The remaining 58% came from developers elsewhere in the world.

Sensor Tower suggests that the rise of Netease and Tencent has made it harder for any outsider to compete. The two publishers dominated the iOS grossing charts in January 2017, for example.

There is also the issue of stringent rules and guidelines for releasing games in China that developers can suffer from. All games have to be pre-approved by the government 20 days before release if they want to be available in the country.