Revenue from China’s mobile games market will exceed $25.49 billion by 2023, according to Asia market analyst Niko Partners.

The company has just released its 2019 China Mobile Games Market Report that forecasts the number of mobile gamers to grow past 728 million over the next five years.

Rapid growth

Domestic China mobile game revenue grew 28.9 per cent year-on-year to $15.63 billion in 2018, meaning Niko Partners anticipates the market will grow by almost $10 billion over the next few years.

Growth in 2018 came despite last year’s big games freeze, in which no new games were given a licence to release or monetise for nine months, and tough new regulations. Since resuming approvals in December 2018, 975 mobile games have been given the greenlight, with recent reforms appearing to have concluded for now.

Niko Partners also noted that last year there were 598 million mobile gamers, with 95 per cent of gamers in China playing mobile titles.

Of these mobile users, 40 per cent spend money in games. Both the average revenue per user and average revenue per paying user metrics are set to increase over the next five years.

Mobile esports revenue is expected to double by 2022, growing from $5.6 billion in 2018 to $10.6 billion.

“China is worth about 25 per cent of the world’s mobile games market – and rising,” said Niko Partners managing partner Lisa Hanson.

“Although the regulations can be challenging, if a company is dedicated to developing a hit game that fits the rules and cultural gaming preferences, there is a strong chance that the effort will pay off in China.”

You can gain more insights into the Asia markets on the East Meets West track at Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle, which takes place on May 13th to 14th. PGC will be heading to Hong Kong on July 17th to 18th. We're also hosting a free London-based 'East Meets West' mini-summit for the games industry on Tuesday, May 29th in association with Mintegral.