China’s mobile gaming market will surpass America’s before 2016

With more than 1.35 billion people and a rapidly growing number of smartphone users, it’s only a matter of time before China surpasses the United States and becomes the world’s most valuable mobile gaming market, and it looks like that time is upon us. According to the 2015 Chinese Mobile Gaming report from Niko Partners, mobile games in China will pull in $5.5 billion by the end of the year, which would make China the world’s most valuable mobile gaming market.

Niko Partners’ 2015 Chinese Mobile Gaming report has predicted that, by the end of 2015, the Chinese mobile games market will have surpassed that of the U.S. in terms of revenue. According to an estimate provided by SuperData, U.S. mobile games revenue will reach $4.5 billion by the end of the year. In contrast, Niko’s report predicts that by the end of 2015, China’s mobile revenue will reach $5.5 billion – up from $3.3 billion last year. The report also revealed that Riot Games, GLU, and Pocket Gems investor, Tencent, continues to dominate China’s mobile market, suggesting that the WeChat creator, which held over 50 percent of the market share in 2014, will control even more by the end of the year. Despite the burgeoning success of mobile gaming in the region, Lisa Cosmas Hanson, founder of Niko Partners, has warned developers that adopting a hit and hope localization policy will likely lead to failure.