With only 3 months left in the single digits 21st century, San Jose, California based Niko Partners is projecting a whopping 64.9 million online gamers under the Chinese flag by years’ end.
While this number is truly staggering, looking at the bottom line is awe-inspiring. According to Niko Partners, each of these 64.9 million gamers will spend on average $52 a pop. Pulling out the calculator, and doing a quick AxB, the Chinese online gaming marketing is in the $3.4 billion range. And remember, the Asian market is the birthplace of the free-to-play, microtransaction based gaming. This $52 on average/person comes directly from the sales of virtual items purchases, as well as advertiser supported in-game advertising.
Niko Partners Managing Partner Lisa Cosmas Hanson comments, “There’s no doubt that the market for games is growing at an incredible rate in China. The economics of the market are shifting from supply-driven to demand-driven.”
Niko’s numbers seem to be right in line with what they projected earlier this year. Documenting the Chinese online gaming market over 2008, Niko put revenues at $2.75 billion. In May Hanson commented, “China’s online market has plenty of room for growth in the next five years, and much of that growth will come from beyond the major metropolises where the number of Internet cafés, home PC penetration and Internet usage are all on the rise.”
Of particular note in Niko’s earlier study, and presumably still true in these newest numbers, Niko places 77 percent of total revenues coming from the MMO market, the remaining 23 percent coming from casual games
