China’s video game market is projected to grow despite government restrictions

A five-year forecast from Niko Partners is predicting China’s video game market will grow through 2026. This forecast is based on two separate reports: one focused on mobile gaming and the other on PC gaming.

The number of gamers in China in 2021 was 706 million, which is actually a decrease year over year. But the total is projected to climb to 730 million in 2026. A big factor in the slower-than-usual growth is the regulations on play time China implemented in 2021. The limits on legal playtime ended up pushing a lot of youth gamers out of the market entirely. China also put a temporary freeze on issuing game licenses around the same time, but started issuing licenses again in April of this year.