Smartphone users in China contribute to the surge in mobile game revenue in the country. (Photo : Getty Images)
China has now exceeded the United States in terms of iOS gaming revenue, leading the market for games on Apple's App Store, an article by techinasia.com said.
New data from an App Annie report showed that with more than 620 million smartphone users in the country, China has topped the market for games, with Japan on third place.
According to the report, the gaming market in the country generated "nearly double the iOS App Store games revenue it had just a year earlier in Q2 2015".
"With the iOS games category taking home about 75 percent of all revenue, China's leap to the top is attributed to explosive growth for multiplayer collaborative games," the report added.
Games, with titles such as "World of Warcraft" (WoW), have long been popular in China and played on desktop computers other parts of Asia. But games played only on mobile such as "Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft", created by the same developer as WoW, are also becoming a popular game to iPhone and iPad owners in China.
The App Annie report however said that it was the locally developed games that "dominated China's top revenue charts and were responsible for a large portion of the year-over-year growth".
"Specifically, massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) like Fantasy Westward Journey, Westward Journey Online, and multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games like Hero Moba were main drivers of China's growth" in the country's mobile game sector, the report said.
Since the release of iPhone 6 in China, Apple's sales in China surged, that also contributed to the total revenue tally.
But Apple's sales and the revenue earned by iOS game developers are challenged by Chinese brands, led by Huawei, which create premium Android phones.
Game and app developers, who find it difficult to earn money from smartphone users since China blocked Google Play, have turned to ads to generate income.
The report said that this year, the global app market is expected to be worth $52 billion, higher than last year's $42 billion. The revenue for worldwide app is estimated to reach $102 billion in 2020, with the strongest growth in revenue in Asia.
