The worldwide gaming market will continue to expand this year, with China accounting for the largest number of gamers in the online PC game and mobile game sectors, a Taipei-based analyst said yesterday.
The global PC game market was forecast to grow by 8 percent from last year to US$20.1 billion this year and to US$25.5 billion in 2015, said Ting Hung-yu (丁鴻裕), a digital media industry analyst at the Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所).
Online PC games would comprise US$16.1 billion of the market this year, while single PC games would garner US$4 billion, he said at a local seminar.
Furthermore, the global mobile game market would grow to US$12.03 billion this year, up 17.1 percent from last year, and was expected to reach US$15.2 billion in 2015, Ting estimated.
He said China still ranked as the world’s largest gaming market, with 120 million online PC gamers and 160 million mobile gamers.
The US ranked second, with 52 million online PC gamers and 100 million mobile gamers, compared with Taiwan’s 6 million online PC gamers and 9 million mobile gamers.
However, China’s PC game market remained an oligopoly, with its top three gaming companies accounting for a combined market share of more than 65 percent last year, according to the MIC.
Tencent Holdings (騰訊) was ranked the top player with a 36.3 percent share last year, followed by Netease Inc (網易) with 16.1 percent and Shanda Interactive Entertainment (盛大) with 12.8 percent, the institute said.
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