Gaming Industry in China Hits $9.7 Billion in 2012

In rather impressive news, China's gaming industry grew 35.1% year-on-year to hit a total estimate revenue of $9.7 billion last year.

Reported by Techweb, the data reveals that online gaming accounted for 90% of the total revenue, which equates to $9.1 billion. Mobile and tablet gaming, which is still in its infancy in the country, generated a still-healthy $520 million in revenues last year. The remaing 0.1% of revenue came from dedicated gaming hardware, which is further complicated by legal obstacles when releasing consoles in China.

The report also predicts a significant growth over the next few years, with a milestone of $21.7 billion targeted by the end of 2017. If this rings true, then this means a 12.4% growth annually.

China's gaming landscape is vastly different from that of Japan and other Western territories, for one, the F2P sector is still king and dedicated gaming consoles are still considered too expensive by most people.

Nonetheless, expect more and more games and publishers to consider that lucrative market as the year goes on. China does have the biggest population in the world after all.

Thanks, GamesIndustry