Gaming industry shows encouraging growth

China's gaming industry is witnessing a rebound this year, with the nation's game users reaching a record high of 668 million, said a report released on Thursday.

The report was unveiled at the 2023 China Digital Entertainment Congress, or CDEC, which is part of the 20th China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference, or China Joy, which runs from July 28 to 31 in Shanghai.

According to the report, the actual sales revenue of China's gaming industry totaled 144.26 billion yuan ($20.23 billion) in the first half of the year. Notwithstanding the slight 2.39 percent decline year-on-year, it marks a 22.2 percent increase compared to the second half of 2022, a sign of recovery in the sector.

Experts pointed out that there can have been many factors behind the decrease, including less consumer willingness to spend, increasing marketing costs brought on by international conflicts, exchange rate instability, and strong market competition.

Despite all the challenges, China's gaming industry has experienced positives in the January-June period. Mobile games, for example, are further expanding into overseas markets, while also continuing to dominate at home.

In the first half year, the United States, Japan and South Korea remained the main overseas markets for China's mobile games, accounting for 31.77 percent, 19.65 percent and 8.5 percent respectively. Emerging markets, including the Middle East, Latin America and Southeast Asia, are also seeing a wider presence of Chinese games.

Strategy and role-playing games remained overseas users' favorite Chinese game categories, followed by shooting and leisure games.

China's desktop games also flourished in the six-month period. The actual sales revenue of desktop games rose 7.17 percent year-on-year to 32.94 billion yuan. Experts attribute the growth to booming exports, games featuring animation characteristics, as well as the synchronized new release of mobile and desktop versions.

Another highlight is domestic leisure games. The revenue driven by in-app purchase, or IAP, of this category surged by 135.4 percent year-on-year to 10.87 billion yuan over the Jan-June period. The robust growth indicates a changing business and profit model within the games, as well as a promising recovery of China's gaming industry, experts said.