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Current trends in China's mobile game market

Nerds and eSports, mostly

Current trends in China's mobile game market

At Unite Europe 2016, Zoe Chen, Head of APAC at 4399, gave a talk on how to enter and succeed in the China market.

She began by showing the current state of China's mobile market, where the top ten games made up 56% of the market share in Q1 2016, and the top 50 games generate an estimated $2 million a month.

Androids and RPGS

The split between devices in China is around 70% Android, 30% iOS, although the revenue split is closer to 60% Android and 40% iOS.

The most popular genres for mobile games are casual, card, and RPG in terms of downloads, although RPG, card, and strategy games are the highest grossing, and there is a growing interest in FPS and MOBAs as eSports continues to grow.

PCs and partnerships

In terms of trends to jump on, there is the move from PC games to mobile, which has seen popular PC MMOs flourish in the mobile market.

There is also a rise in what Chen describes as "pan-entertainment", where mobile games are utilising TV shows and other brands to raise their profile.

And there's a nijigen subculture to target, a huge, young, '90s generation subset of the culture who are very enthusiastic about gaming and anime, much like the otaku subculture of Japan.

Finally, Chen suggested that developers need to work with a good partner, who understands the product and can help localise it properly, before advertising 4399 as such a partner.


Editor

Ric is the Editor of PocketGamer.biz, having started out as a Staff Writer on the site back in 2015. He received an honourable mention in both the MCV and Develop 30 Under 30 lists in 2016 and refuses to let anyone forget about it.