(Yicai Global) Dec. 16 -- China’s gaming revenue climbed 6.4 percent this year from the same period last year, a pace 15 percentage points slower than in 2020, due to the fading ‘work-from-home’ effect, fewer top-selling games and the country’s strict new curbs on young players.

China’s gaming market will reach CNY296.5 billion (USD46.6 billion) this year, according to a report by the Game Publishing Committee of the Chinese Audio-Visual and Digital Publishing Association and China Game Industry Research Institute.

Mobile games account for 76.1 percent of this revenue. But growth slowed by 25 percentage points to 7.6 percent.

The number of gamers also dipped in the second half from a year ago as China’s recent crackdown on minors to combat addiction came into effect, limiting them to just three hours of online gaming a week. The total number of gamers only increased 0.22 percent over the course of the year to 666 million people.

Overseas sales of China’s self-developed games were up 16.6 percent year on year to USD18 billion, the report said. This was a rate 17 percentage points slower than last year. The US accounted for 32.6 percent of international revenue, Japan 18.5 percent and South Korea 7.2 percent.

Editor: Kim Taylor