MOBA games dominate China's internet cafes, and MMORPGs are dying

If you’re interested in China’s gaming market, it’s hard to ignore the internet cafe. Sure, they’re not as prevalent as they once were, but internet cafes still bring in massive user numbers and they still account for 40% of the revenue generated by PC game companies in China, according to a report on internet cafe gaming in Q1 2014 released by Shunwang.

MOBA dominance

The report reveals a fact that should not be surprising to frequent readers of this site: MOBA games are extremely popular. In fact, according to the Shunwang report, MOBA games accounted for more than 52% of all gaming in Chinese internet cafes this past quarter. A total of 538 million users logged on to play MOBA games during that time (note: that’s not unique users, users who played multiple separate sessions will have been counted more than once).

Moreover, those numbers represent growth of more than 14% compared to the previous quarter. MOBA gaming has been growing steadily each quarter for more than a year now, and if this quarter’s results are any indication, it shows no signs of stopping any time soon.

And which MOBA is at the top of the heap? It’s Riot Games and Tencent’s League of Legends by a mile; with well over 400 million users online last quarter, nothing else even comes close. The second- and third-place games are Meng San Guo (21 million online users) and Dota 2 (5.3 million online users).

The dark horse, of course, is Blizzard’s upcoming Heroes of the Storm. The game has not been released in any format in China, but Blizzard games tend to do very well in the Middle Kingdom, so it could give the top MOBAs a run for their money once it finally is released.

The end of MMOs?

Other interesting insights from the report: FPS games are the second-most-popular game genre in Chinese net cafes, with Crossfire taking the top spot for FPS players. The MMORPG, however, which has long been a favorite in China, seems to be slowly dying out. Player numbers for 2D and 3D MMORPGs were both down more than 10% compared to the previous quarter. Among major MMOs, the only real exception to this was Blade & Soul, which saw a slight increase in players. Every other major MMO, including WOW, saw internet cafe player numbers drop pretty precipitously.

If you can read Chinese, the full Shunwang report is well worth perusing.

(Shunwang via QQ Games)