China’s gaming reportedly hit a record gamer base in the first half of 2023 | Pocket Gamer.biz

The China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference (ChinaJoy) kicked off in Shanghai today, and ahead of the forum a number of government regulators, business executives, and researches gathered in the city to attend the main forum, where they delved into the success of the country’s gaming industry over the first half of the year.

The first half of 2023 saw China’s gamer base hit a record of 668 million, according to the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association (CADPA). This means that as many as one in two people throughout the nation are playing games.

Despite this, revenue for the period stood at 144.3 billion yuan ($20 billion), representing a 2.39% decline from H1 2022. This suggests that, even though the Chinese market is recovering from a particularly turbulent 2022, revenue has been somewhat slow to catch up. The company’s restriction on playtime among young players may have factored into this slowdown.

Are good times ahead?

CADPA vice director general Zhang Yijun stated that the market is “turning warm”, with Q2 revenue growing 22% quarter-on-quarter. Yijun also forecast that the market will grow further in the second half of the year.

Shanghai Publicity Department vice director stated that the city’s gaming industry has proven particularly robust, and is the home of one out of every four mobile games with revenue in excess of 10 million yuan. ($1.4 million).

A full report of China’s gaming performance over the first half of 2023 will be published during the conference.

China has long been the world’s biggest mobile gaming market and, despite the struggles it faced last year, the data so far suggests that a period of strong recovery is just around the corner.

China is home to some of the world’s biggest mobile companies, including several listed in our list of the top 50 mobile game makers of 2022. We’ll be unveiling our list for 2023 in the coming months.