China's game industry sets new records

The sales income generated in the Chinese domestic games market surged 14.08 percent year-on-year to 168 billion yuan ($23.4 billion) in the first half of this year, hitting a new record.

The number of Chinese game users also touched an all-time high 679 million, up 0.72 percent from a year earlier.

The figures are from the latest half-year China Game Industry Report released by Game Publishing Committee and Expert Committee on Game Industry Research on Thursday.

Income generated by Chinese independently developed games in the overseas markets exceeded $9.5 billion, up 11.07 percent from a year earlier. The United States was the biggest overseas market for these games, taking up 31.96 percent of the market share, followed by Japan and South Korea. China-developed simulation games were the most popular among overseas users, bringing in 43.33 percent of the total overseas income.

Sales revenue from games independently developed by Chinese games companies spiked 19.29 percent year-on-year to about 140.5 billion yuan.

Mobile games' income in China crossed 125.3 billion yuan in the first six months of the year, up 16.55 percent from a year earlier. The majority 20.42 percent of this income came from multiplayer online battle arena games. Sales revenue from games on WeChat mini-programs soared 40.2 percent year-on-year to 23.3 billion yuan.

Console games saw their half-year income jump 29.78 percent year-on-year to top over 1.03 billion yuan. The actual sales revenue from e-sports games increased 16.64 percent from a year earlier to about 80.7 billion yuan.