Online gaming in the People's Republic of China represents one of the largest and fastest growing Internet business sectors in the world. With 457 million Internet users currently active in the PRC, the country now has the largest online user base in world, of which two-thirds engage in online game play. The average online gamer in China is relatively young (18 to 30 years old), male, and has at least completed a secondary level of education. Demographically the online gaming user base in China is very similar to base of China Internet users, most of whom live in larger cities.
Online games in China fall into two primary categories: MMORPGs and MOCGs, the former have a predilection for persistent online worlds where hundreds to thousands of game players can interact simultaneously; the latter is a generic term for games played competitively online without the existence of a persistent online realm (games as simple as online Ma Jiang and online competitive card games would fall under this category).In 2011, there were over 100 million Chinese MMO gamers.
Official Chinese statistics regarding online gaming state that as of the close of 2006 revenue from China's online gaming industry reached 8 billion RMB or around 1.04 billion US dollars, with earnings reaching around 33 billion RMB or 4.3 billion US dollars. Additionally, while American, Japanese, and South Korean companies have traditionally dominated the market, Chinese developed software now holds a 65% market share on the mainland, with an additional 20 million in revenue generated by users outside of China.
The online gaming market in China grew to $1.6 billion in 2007, and is expected to exceed $3 Billion in 2010. Growth was driven in part by China's most popular online game, Netease's Fantasy Westward Journey, which now has 1.66 million peak concurrent users. Another contributor is Giant's Zhengtu Online, which has 1.52 million peak concurrent users.
China is now the world's largest online gaming market, contributing one-third to the global revenue in this sector in 2009, or 56 percent of the Asia Pacific total
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