According to several reliable reports, the first half of 2022 saw a decline in revenue generated by Chinese video gaming companies as well as the number of gamers in the country. The country’s gaming market has been strong initially, despite China’s strict regulations on video gaming, but the first six months of 2022 paint a bit of a different picture.
The main report comes from “The Game Publishing Committee of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association” stating that the number of active Chinese gamers fell to 665.69 million from 666.57, and the total revenue saw a decrease of 1.8%. The decrease in these areas is no reason for panic as most data providers actually expected a slight decline in numbers come 2022, but nevertheless, it’s the first time there’s a decline in about ten years.
China still continues to dominate the mobile games market per Statista and Adjoe’s reports and in fact both the mobile and other video game markets are expected to grow in the upcoming years.
On top of all that, China has been a bit more lenient with approving new games this year, after a freeze period that lasted nearly a whole year. However, two China-based video game giants Tencent and NetEase were denied game licenses for the third time and both firms are looking for solutions elsewhere, mainly in the US and Europe.
For video game studios that want to get their games published in China, there waits a number of obstacles to be overcome, but since the freeze is over at least it’s not an impossible task anymore.
