China’s video game sales fell for the first time in the first half of January-June this year, according to the press on the 22nd.
Citing a report by the China Audio Video and Digital Publishing Association, a video game industry group, the industry’s overall sales fell 1.8% year-on-year to 147.789 billion yuan.
The media analyzed that the world’s largest market was stagnant as Chinese authorities tightened regulations and regulations on video games.
Until now, it has put a brake on the growth of the video game market by imposing various regulations such as reducing the number of new game licenses and limiting Internet game usage time under the age of 18.
The number of China’s video game users decreased by 0.13% from 666.57 million as of December last year to 666.69 million as of the end of June this year. It is also the first time that the number of users has decreased.
Game companies’ sales in China are 124.5 billion yuan, down 4.25 percent from the same period last year. As regulations become stricter, companies are turning to overseas markets for growth. Overseas sales rose 6.16 percent to $9 billion.
Chinese authorities suspended the issuance of new licenses for games for nine months before resuming them in April, but they have still not given new licenses to major game companies such as Tung Xun and Wang Yi Net.
Regarding the decrease in sales and users of video games, the first vice chairman of the publishing association, Jang Jun, pointed out, “It is due to a decrease in user income due to the COVID-19 incident, a decrease in related consumption motivation, and a continued increase in operating costs of game companies.”
Vice Chairman Jang said the market has entered an era of survival competition as it was revealed that the “population bonus” effect of the game industry has disappeared due to a shift in the size of users.
