49 Billion Dollar MMORPG Gaming market in China
Almost from 2015, the MMORPG mobile game has risen, and gradually formed a pattern in which many head products are firmly ranked in the top 10 of the best-selling list.
Even if it is subsequently hit by SLG, sports, placement, card and other categories, even today, 4 of the top 10 best-selling lists are still MMO.
Top 10 partial screenshots of the bestseller list on April 9
Previously, the market situation of the MMO category in the industry could only be digging out scattered clues from the financial reports of various manufacturers. It is difficult to get a glimpse of the whole picture, but a prospectus recently revealed some information about this category at this stage.
The prospectus submitted by Zulong on April 3, quoted the game industry data provided by market research agency Frost & Sullivan, which included relevant information on the MMO category. Grape King excerpted them and sorted them out as follows.
It should be noted that the data in this article comes from the public data of third-party organizations or game companies. Among them, the data provided by third-party organizations is for reference only, and does not represent the accurate situation of game companies and industries.
The domestic market size of MMO mobile games in 2019 is 48.8 billion
According to Frost & Sullivan, the market size of MMO mobile games in Mainland China reached 48.8 billion yuan in 2019, accounting for 26.9% of the overall domestic mobile game market.
At the same time, in the Mainland China market, the average monthly income of each active user of the MMORPG category in 2019 reached 256.5 yuan, which is the game category with the highest active user value, far exceeding the second-ranked CCG category (161.6 yuan).
NetEase’s self-research accounted for 33%, Top 5 companies divided into 60% of the market
Observing the pattern of the domestic MMO market in detail, according to Frost & Sullivan’s data, if it is divided by the flow of self-developed MMO, the top 5 game companies have divided up 58.3% of the market share.
Among them, the market share of company B’s self-developed products actually accounted for 33.0% of the market, far ahead of other companies. According to the description of “Dedicating to provide online services around content, community, communication and business, the gaming division was established in 2001”, company B should be NetEase.
Company C accounted for 11.7%. The company “develops and operates games in domestic and foreign markets, and is also focused on developing MMORPG.” Combining the table below, Company C’s self-developed game pipeline accounted for 3.8% of the overall market. Company C may be the perfect world.
Looking at company A again, the company “the gaming division was established in 2003 to provide a series of diversified integrated Internet services and products.” Combining the above table, company A ranks first in the domestic game market. Grape King speculates that the company A should be Tencent.
As for the company D in the table, Grapevine did not find a fully qualified manufacturer. For example, Sanqi Huyu meets the requirements for “establishment in 2011”. Although the previous self-developed products are mostly MMO, according to its annual report, Sanqi Mutual Entertainment’s revenue in 2019 reached 13.2 billion. Even if it only counts the self-developed games, it does not seem to match the market share indicated in the table.
Company E has fewer clues. Grape King guesses that it may be Duoyi. Readers are also welcome to express their opinions in the comment area.
Look at the MMO mobile game rankings based on the average monthly active user scale.
In 2019, “Dragon Fantasy” ranks first with an average monthly user count of 3.28 million and ranks second in the game. Given the little information provided by the prospectus, grape king guesses that it may be “Shenwu 4” (also welcome readers in the comment area) Express your opinion).
The third, fourth, and fifth were swept by NetEase. Grape King speculated that it might be one of “Dream Westward Journey”, “Darge Westward Journey” and “Dream Westward Journey 3D Edition”, “Ghost Story”, and “One Dream River” paragraph.
What is the development trend of domestic MMO overseas?
Outside the Mainland China market, Frost & Sullivan also counted the ranking of Chinese game manufacturers based on the self-developed MMO’s turnover in overseas markets. The highest ranking is still NetEase, accounting for 18.3%, followed by Tencent, Zu Dragon ranked third.
In addition, Frost Sullivan also provided reference data on the revenue of domestic mobile games and MMO categories in overseas markets:
In the markets of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, the overall revenue of domestic mobile games in 2019 was 445.4 million US dollars, of which domestic MMO revenue was 171 million US dollars, accounting for 38.5%.
In the Japanese market, the overall revenue of domestic mobile games in 2019 was 1.108 billion US dollars, of which the annual revenue of domestic MMORPG was 188.3 million US dollars, accounting for about 17%.
In Southeast Asia, the overall revenue of domestic mobile games in 2019 was 554.4 million US dollars, of which the annual revenue of domestic MMO was 144.1 million US dollars, accounting for 25.9%.
In Europe, the market share of the MMO category is about 12%. The domestic mobile game revenue in Europe in 2019 is 902.7 million US dollars, of which domestic MMO revenue accounts for about 8.3%, which is converted into 75 million US dollars;
In the US market, the market share of the MMO category is lower than that of the European region, only 8%, and the domestic revenue of domestic games in 2019 in the United States is about 960 million US dollars.
In the Korean market, the market share of MMO mobile games in 2019 accounted for 62.8% of the overall market. With the increasing number of domestic manufacturers going to South Korea, domestic mobile games revenue in the Korean market in 2019 was 480.5 million US dollars.
However, Frost & Sullivan did not give the revenue data of domestic MMO in the Korean market. If calculated based on the overall market share, the revenue of domestic MMO in the Korean market is about 301.7 million US dollars.
In general, currently domestic MMOs are relatively smooth in overseas markets in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, South Korea and Southeast Asia. Although they have considerable revenue in Japan, they account for a relatively low percentage of the overall revenue of overseas products, while in Europe and the United States, domestic MMOs Maybe we need to find a better breakthrough.
MMO may continue to support the market increase
According to Frost & Sullivan’s prediction, the market size of MMO in Mainland China is expected to reach 60.80 billion in 2020, and the market size of this category may grow to 116.7 billion in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 19.1%. According to this inference, MMO will remain the fastest-growing category in the Chinese mainland market in the next five years.
In view of the high revenue growth rate of the MMO category, the high ARPU value of this category, and a longer life cycle than other categories (the average life cycle of MMO is 8–18 months, many long-term products even exceed 18 months), MMO In the future, in the domestic market, it will still be the focus of investment by the head manufacturers.
The prospectus shows that Zulong will launch MMO new games at the rate of 1 or 2 in the next three years; Perfect World also mentioned in the 2019 annual report that it plans to launch “New God Demon Continent” and “Remains of God of War” in 2020. “Fantasy New Zhuxian” and other products (the first two models have obtained version numbers); NetEase has already reviewed MMOs such as “Tianyu” mobile games and “Island Era” in Q1 this year, and it should be launched within the year …
Not only that, in overseas markets, domestic MMO may also become a key weapon for domestic manufacturers to expand their market share abroad.
Previously, many domestic MMOs have broken into the top 10 best-selling lists in South Korea. The heartbeat “Fairyland Legend RO” has broken the revenue record of single mobile games in Southeast Asia. Recently, “Dragon Fantasy” topped the Japanese free list at the reservation stage. Perhaps This means that domestically produced MMOs also have greater market space in Japan.
From this point of view, in the next few years, the MMO category may still be an important rely on domestic manufacturers to find market increments.
🇨🇳This original English article was published by ChinaPotion. Please contact us for any deeper insight & data; or to report unique tech stories in China.
ChinaPotion.com | Breaking Tech Stories from China
