The expenditure is more than twice that of Chinese users, and American mobile gamers spend a lot of money on what they want

China is the world's largest consumer market for mobile games, but in terms of per capita consumption, China and the United States are significantly different.

According to the "2021 China Game Industry Report" released by the Game Working Committee of the China Music and Digital Association and the China Game Industry Research Institute, the actual sales revenue of China's mobile game market in 2021 was 225.538 billion yuan, an increase of 7.57% year-on-year, and the scale of mobile game users reached 656 million people, an increase of 0.23% year-on-year. According to the above data, the per capita user expenditure of mobile games in 2021 will be 344 yuan.

According to Statista data, it is expected to be $20.454 billion in 2021, with 156 million players and a per capita expenditure of $137, more than twice as many mobile game users as China.

"The most important reason why the US market is valued by domestic game manufacturers is definitely that the user value there is one of the highest in the world." There is a less accurate but popular saying in the industry: ten Southeast Asian players are not as good as the flow of water contributed by one American player. TapTap platform people said.

For the difference in the expenditure of Gamers in China and the United States, Ma Axin, a senior analyst in the interactive entertainment industry of Analysys Analysis, told First Finance and Economics that the willingness of American users to pay for various terminal games is very strong, and under the long-term development of the game market, the user's payment habits have been gradually formed. In contrast, the development time of China's game market is relatively short, and the willingness of users to pay has not yet been fully developed.

Some game industry practitioners have pointed out that the meaning of the average can be portrayed is not all, because different categories, even different games in the same category, their ARPU (average user revenue) and LTV (lifetime value, that is, the average user in the first login game to the last time to log in the game, the total revenue generated for the game) may be very different. Considering the proportion of game spending to users' leisure and entertainment, the two may not be much different.

But one thing is worth noting.

"In the next 1 to 2 years, the mainland mobile game market should fluctuate slightly in terms of revenue and number of users, and the US market may usher in a wave of dividends for the growth of mobile game users." TapTap related sources told First Financial Economics that Chinese mainland and the United States are the T1-level market for mobile games.

According to the above-mentioned person, the growth and certainty of the US game market is expected to be better than that of the mainland market. He believes that the growth of the number of mainland mobile game users will slow down significantly, and the vast majority of mainland gamers are born mobile gamers and have not experienced the console game era, so there are fewer potential incremental users. The U.S. gaming market currently has a large number of console and PC players who have not migrated to mobile phones, so there is more room.

Xiao Hong, CEO of Perfect World, told First Finance that the differences between Chinese and American mobile games mainly come from the fundamental differences in a large number of user life scenarios and consumption habits. "Why do Americans prefer big games, console games? You will find that his time is sitting in the living room, sitting at home before or after work, and has more time. When the experience of life and the environment and the surrounding scenes are not the same, its requirements for the game are not the same. You say that there is a difference between them, and the core difference of mobile games is that it comes from the user's experience and life scenes. ”

He mentioned that North America is also developing mobile games, but unlike domestic RPGs (role-playing games), SLGs (strategy games) are more popular because they do not need to concentrate on spending a lot of time, which has something to do with users' interests and cultural traditions.

Some Chinese companies are optimistic about the development prospects of the US game market and intend to try their hand at the local market.

"The quality of the games of the game companies that have succeeded overseas is excellent. In addition, they have also been operating in the community overseas and interacting with overseas players. Alan Lan, managing director of Twitter Greater China, told FIRST Finance that for the game industry, Twitter has observed the transformation of the industry in marketing strategy - Chinese game brands have gradually changed from the more extensive marketing strategy of only focusing on ROI (return on investment) in the past to a longer-term and more refined operation, and began to build IP and brands belonging to China.

However, a person from a game manufacturer who went to sea reminded: "Going to sea is indeed stormy, from project establishment, research and development to customer acquisition, operation, every step has a pit, so going to sea is certainly not the only way to ensure the survival of the company, so domestic game manufacturers may not go to sea may be slow death, and they may also be overturned by the big waves in the ocean." ”

On the other hand, China's game market also contains new opportunities, and the younger generation of users is more willing to pay. Gen Z and Millennial users are significantly more willing to pay than Baby Boomers, and have a higher level of acceptance of in-game purchases, subscription services, and more.