Gaming growth in Asia Pacific sluggish amid clampdown in China: report

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While Asia Pacific remains the largest gaming region globally in 2023, its year-on-year growth in 2023 so far has lagged behind the rest of the world.

Data from a recently released Newzoo report found that Asia Pacific only logged a 1.2% year-over-year bump in revenue to date. This is below the global market’s 2.6% increase within the same period.

According to the report, China’s gaming market has brought down the region’s average, with the country only registering a 0.7% jump in the last 12 months.

The sluggish growth also comes as the country continues to clamp down on gaming for minors and the slow issuance of new licenses. However, as more titles from large companies get approval this year, China seems to be loosening its grip on the industry.

Nevertheless, China is still home to two of the top five public gaming companies by revenue, with Tencent in first place and NetEase sitting in fifth. Some of the biggest titles from the former include PUBG and Honor of Kings, while the latter is behind Harry Potter: Magic Awakened and Naraka: Bladepoint.

There’s still room for growth as well, as the total number of gamers worldwide is expected to hit 1.47 billion this year and 1.66 billion by 2026. The Newzoo report counts all people who have played games on PC, consoles, mobile devices, or cloud gaming servicers in the past six months as gamers.

Currently, more than half of gamers worldwide are based in Asia Pacific, which the report attributed to gaming’s popularity in markets like India, China, Japan, and South Korea.

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