While mobile gaming market in China is still growing, it becomes more rational since 2015. I would say the market is trending toward mature nowadays.
Competition in China mobile gaming is becoming fiercer with the participation of various mobile game and PC game giants. For mobile game companies to survive in this market, capital, IP, and quality of products are essential; cloud computing also became one of the important elements for success. Therefore, first-tier cities in China, where provide better education and output more talents, keep an increasing amount of products; on the flip side, a decreasing trend is shown on the number of products developed in second-tier cities.
Ksyun (Kingsoft Cloud), the top gaming cloud service provider in China, had approximately 100 games monthly on average and more than 800 games total tested in its cloud gaming platform in 2015.
Based on a large amount of games analyzed in its platform, Ksyun released the latest 2015 China Mobile Gaming Industry Report recently discussed the market share, gamer behavior, and 2016 estimation of the China mobile gaming industry. The report reveals that RPG was responsible for 22.86% of all the games analyzed on the Ksyun platform, followed by 20% of ARPG and 18.57% of card games*.
Mobile Game Genres Analyzed on Ksyun in 2015 (Source: Ksyun, 2015)
As I mentioned in my last post, martial art is the hottest game theme**. The Ksyun report reassured that by showing the fact that Martial art mobile games occupied as high as 22.97% of the entire market and ranked number 1.
Top Game Theme of China Mobile Gaming Market (Source: Ksyun, 2015)
Action games and RPG games each ranked top 1 and top 2 in downloads, and these two segments also stand out in 2015 with 25.33% and 21.65% of retention.
Downloads and Retention of Game Genres in % (Source: Ksyun, 2015)
Compared with products without IP, products with IP not only have a higher click through rate but a higher download conversion rate on their corresponding website. It is obvious that IP products attract more gamers than other products do.
The mobile gamers are expecting a smooth and exciting gaming experience; 33.56% of the gamers have a high expectation of the fighting experience, especially the impact in fighting.
Expectation of Mobile Gamers in China (Source: Ksyun, 2015)
Estimation goes that action game and RPG will keep leading the mobile gaming market in 2016, each occupying 25.56% and 21.45% of the total this year.
Estimation of Market Share of Different Game Genres in 2016 (Source: Ksyun, 2015)
Analyzing the data provided by Ksyun, it is not surprising that action game and RPG based on martial arts theme are the most promising products in 2016. And I bet the most popular game in that genre would be the one with the best fighting experience and a strong IP in China.
Other References
Cover image credit: JX Online 3 | Female character of Qixiu martial art school | Cosplayer: kilory | Photo:@无主贝刃 @逆风-无将 | staff：@逆风-无将 @晚晚xi