Research firm Newzoo has published data about the Chinese mobile market which is eye-opening in one regard; we know that it's a huge market, with more players than the U.S. population. Thanks to that, Newzoo is projecting that mobile game revenues will hit $6.5 billion in China this year.
What's interesting is that the top games are what we'd consider core titles in the West.
This is interesting for two reasons: It shows that there's nothing stopping core players from embracing mobile platforms except habit; and it shows that developers of mobile games that aren't necessarily considered the biggest potential hits in the West might perform well in the Chinese market.
Newzoo's data on the Chinese Android market for July reveals, for example, that one-fifth of the top 20 games are RPGs. Its data on the iOS market, meanwhile, is similarly skewed toward the genre, as experienced mobile free-to-play dev Ben Cousins points out:
For those curious, top grossing iOS games in China aren't very casual 1. MMO 2. Third Person Shooter 3. MMO 4. MMO 5. Top-Down Shooter
— Ben Cousins (@BenjaminCousins) August 6, 2015
Will the Western market follow suit, eventually?
Here are a couple of Newzoo infographics to get you thinking:
