Strong smartphone sales and growing 3G usage will see the number of mobile gamers surpass those on PC in China before the end of the year, according to market research firm Niko Partners.

The body reports the number of people playing mobile gamers will rise to 192 million over the course of the next few months, putting it ahead of the 180 million people reportedly playing PC titles.

Mobile momentum

"Niko projects fast growth in mobile games revenue in China led by the rising adoption of 3G usage, soaring sales of smartphones from a wide array of vendors, and the desire to play entertaining, inexpensive games on these smart mobile devices," said Niko Partners managing partner Lisa Cosmas Hanson.

"Mobile games and web-browser games are the two buzzword segments in China’s games market this year, and Chinese game companies are racing to deliver their games on multiple platforms to satisfy gamer demand in every way possible."

As a result, the firm's five year forecast projects that mobile game revenue in China will grow sixfold from $600 million in 2011 to more than a few billion dollars by the end of that period.

[source: VentureBeat]