Study – Online games market in China grew 32% in 2011 to $6.6B

By Stephany Nunneley

Pearl Research has estimated that during 2011, the online gaming market in China grew 32% to $6.6 billion.

According to the firm’s latest study, trends in the region’s casual, MMO, social and web-based games market contributed over $5.3 billion to firms such as Changyou, Netease, Perfect World, Shanda Games, and Tencent with the later posting $1 billion in revenues for 2011.

Pearl expects the market to continue thriving at a rapid pace, and grow to $9.2 billion by the end of 2014.

Overall, the firm noted that over $800 million in revenues was made by web-based titles alone, 60% of which were RPGs, and the most popular of the lot was Tencent’s Qi Xiong Zheng Ba which boasts 800,000 concurrent users.

Thanks, GI International.