Online game market in China's to reach $3.8 billion in 2009

May 5, 11:53 AMHouston Video Game ExaminerJamal Robinson

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China continues to play a huge part in supporting the game industry.

58 million Chinese gamers are protecting the gaming industry from the global economic crisis.  Niko Partners, the leading market intelligence firm on China’s video game industry, today announced results from its latest report.  They cited $2.75 billion revenue in online games in 2008, new online game market segments, continued strength in illegal sales of game consoles, and 23 million PCs in China’s 170,000 Internet cafes. The firm predicts that the online game market will enjoy a healthy CAGR(Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 26.4% over the next five years with revenue to reach up to $8.9 billion in 2013.

“Average spending per Chinese gamer is rising to the point where a 26% increase in gamers resulted in 61% more revenue for online games in 2008,” said Lisa Cosmas Hanson, managing partner of Niko Partners. “Niko’s conclusion is that China’s online market has plenty of room for growth in the next five years, and much of that growth will come from beyond the major metropolises where the number of Internet cafes, home PC penetration and Internet usage are all on the rise.”

Here are some important insights from the report.

• Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) accounted for 77% of 2008 online games revenue.  The rest of the 23% is generated from advanced casual and casual games.

• Webgames and games on social networking sites offer more games to new, casual, and hardcore gamers that play MMORPGs.

• Next-Gen consoles' sales continue to increase, though entirely via illegal imports as there has been a ban on consoles since 2000.

•The number of online gamers should reach 119 million by 2012, a 17.7% CAGR.

The 2009 Annual Review & Five-Year Forecast Report on China’s Video Game Industry by Niko Partners is a thorough review and forecast of the 2008-2013 PC online, PC offline, casual games, social networking games, console, handheld games and hardware market. This is based on 70,000 points of data collected by Niko Partners in 10 Chinese cities in March 2009.  The study provides the largest and most comprehensive information published on gamers, Internet cafes, regulations, online game operators, games, hardware, software and anything related to the gaming industry.