Per reporter: Wen Menghua Per editor: Wen Duo
In 2023, after three-quarters, the game market, which was once highly expected by the market, handed over a "report card" of nearly 30 billion yuan in August.
On October 8, after the double holiday, Gamma Data released the "August 2023 Game Industry Report". Data show that in August 2023, the actual sales revenue of China's game market was 29.226 billion yuan, an increase of 2.15% month-on-month and 46.08% year-on-year, and the month-on-month growth rate narrowed slightly, and the year-on-year growth range expanded again.
"July and August are in the summer season, and the Chinese game market increased slightly month-on-month in July and August, with a year-on-year increase of more than 40% in July and a year-on-year increase of more than 50% in August, and we believe that the market performance is better than the same period last year and exceeds expectations." Wang Xu, co-founder and chief analyst of Gamma Data, said in an interview with the "Daily Economic News" reporter.
As early as before the long holiday, the State Press and Publication Administration released the approval information of domestic online games in September, and a total of 89 domestic games were granted edition numbers, and the products of companies such as Sanqi Interactive Entertainment, CMGE, and Perfect World were listed.
"Market recovery", "recovery", "polarization" of corporate performance, and "diversification" of product types, Wang Xu used these keywords to describe the game market in 2023. Now, entering the fourth quarter, with the normalization of game version number issuance, and the "you chase me to catch up" of major game manufacturers, what kind of "final answer" is the game market expected to deliver?
Summer file "pick the big beam" The domestic game market revenue in August was nearly 30 billion yuan
From the data, the size of China's game market in August was 29.226 billion yuan, an increase of 2.15% month-on-month and 46.08% year-on-year. Among them, the sequential growth is inseparable from the "boost" of the scale of the mobile game market.
Image source: August 2023 Games Industry Report
In August 2023, the actual sales revenue of China's mobile game market was 22.851 billion yuan, an increase of 3.35% month-on-month and 63.73% year-on-year. Behind the growing numbers, on the one hand, August is still summer, and includes the Tanabata Festival, and related activities once again stimulate users to pay; On the other hand, the turnover of the new product "MapleIsland: The Legend of Maples" reached 500 million yuan, and the turnover of the new product "Crystal Nucleus" last month also achieved a significant month-on-month increase this month.
Image source: August 2023 Games Industry Report
In the client game market, the size in August was 5.604 billion yuan, down 1.60% month-on-month and up 6.92% year-on-year.
The month-on-month decrease was mainly due to the fact that the number of events such as CrossFire and Dungeons & Warriors was lower this month than in the previous month, and the activities focused on promoting activation rather than payment, resulting in a sequential decrease in turnover.
"The month-on-month and year-on-year growth of the game market in August is within the industry's expectations, which has a lot to do with the launch of new games, the increase in product supply, the summer vacation of old games and the rise of Qixi activities." Gao Dongxu, founder and chief analyst of China Entertainment Think Tank, said.
For a long time, the summer file has been a "battleground for soldiers" for various game companies. This summer, nearly 100 new games such as Tencent Games, Perfect World, Netease, and Giant Network were unveiled online, supporting the game industry to move forward.
The data shows that in August 2023, the number of new games that have entered the top 200 of the iOS daily best-selling list is 23, which is the highest number of products on the list so far in 2021.
Wang Xu told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that the increase in these new products in the summer of this year exceeded 3 billion yuan, and among the 5 products with a turnover of more than 100 million yuan, the role-playing category accounted for 3. Among them, in August, "MapleStory: The Legend of Maples" topped the Gamma list according to the first month of the new tour, and the turnover in the first month was estimated to exceed 900 million yuan.
Image source: August 2023 Games Industry Report
"Honor of Kings" "assist" MOBA products increased the most
Under the overall industry data, specific to game products, the changes in the flow of different types of game products reflect the more micro changes in the game industry in August.
The data shows that in August 2023, the turnover share of MOBA products in the streaming TOP50 mobile games increased the most, followed by role-playing products; The share of shooting and strategy products decreased significantly.
Image source: August 2023 Games Industry Report
Among them, the increase in the turnover of MOBA products was mainly driven by "Honor of Kings", on the one hand, due to the high activity of summer users, on the other hand, the sales of Qixi themed skins launched for recent popular heroes were higher. The increase in the share of turnover of role-playing games ranked second was mainly due to the good performance of new products such as "Against the Water and Cold" and "Honkai: Star Dome Railway".
In contrast, the year-on-year decrease in the turnover share of shooting and strategy games was mainly affected by the year-on-year decrease in the turnover of head products such as "Peace Elite" and "Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition". In addition, the streaming top 50 mobile game client game IP adaptation products "Peace Elite" and "Fantasy Westward Journey" decreased significantly year-on-year, while the number of client game IP adaptation products decreased by 2 year-on-year.
Talking about the trend in the fourth quarter, Wang Xu believes that from the revenue data of 172 companies currently counted by Gamma Data, the total revenue of games in the first half of 2023 is growing. Although the proportion of decline is higher from the perspective of the number of year-on-year growth or decline of enterprises, due to the increasingly obvious trend of polarization, the growth of the revenue of the growing enterprises exceeds the reduction of the declining enterprises, so the annual market size is more likely to increase than last year.
"This year, driven by factors such as the return to normal distribution of version numbers, the achievement of juvenile protection, and the increase in product supply, the industry has recovered significantly, and some new games have performed well." Gao Dongxu observed, but at the same time, he also stressed that it should be seen that the game industry is in a mature stage, there are many problems to face and break through, product production cost increase, content homogenization and personnel structure adjustment and optimization, etc., need to actively adjust the industrial chain at multiple levels, improve quality and efficiency, and promote the high-quality development and structural optimization and adjustment of the game industry.
Daily economic news