Wall Street Journal: China on track to claim half of online gaming market

by Rubi Bayer Nov 27th 2009 at 6:00PM

It's no surprise to us (or you, probably) that MMOs are big business in China. The Wall Street Journal reports that a new study from Beijing data-analysis firm Cnzz.com predicts that China will hold more than half of the global market for online gaming by 2012. Given the current 20% growth rate, the online gaming market is predicted to reach 41 billion yuan ($6 billion USD). They currently report 338 million web users among their population, with two-thirds of those users defining themselves as online game players.

Of course, the main branch of online games in this case are MMOs. In October, six of the ten most popular games in China were MMOs, with four of those being subscription based models. World of Warcraft holds the top spot in that list with "the most registered players and peak simultaneous online users." (The recent bickering between WoW and NetEase may make that a temporary position, however.)

The full story from WSJ blogs contains more details, and is a good overall read.

Tags: china, netease, Online-Gaming, wall-street-journal, world-of-warcraft, wow, wsj-blogs

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Infexion said on 6:52PM 11-27-2009

That's alot of gold farmers!

Vladimir said on 7:12PM 11-27-2009

I wonder... if there's as many Chinese gold farmers... in China.

indygamer said on 10:26PM 11-27-2009

I recently read somewhere that china has an estimated 500,000 gold farmers supplying in-game currency to the market. It didn't specify a particular game but WoW was mention through out the article.

M said on 1:24AM 11-28-2009

"I recently read somewhere that china has an estimated 500,000 gold farmers supplying in-game currency to the market"

And hell, that's just Aion!

Alz said on 5:06AM 11-28-2009

Well, it's no wonder their government wants to ban foreign investment in online games. With huge numbers like that, why have them playing foreign MMOs when they can grow their economy with their own online games?

Satanis said on 11:09AM 11-30-2009

Ni Hao!

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