COVID-19 could accelerate the ‘maturity of Chinese players’ in the free-to-play market

The free-to-play market is gigantic worldwide, including the hundreds of millions of players within China. Nielsen’s SuperData Research Group found that free-to-play games revenue saw a 6 percent increase to $87.1 billion last year (near 80 percent of the overall $109.4 billion for digital game revenue). Research commissioned by firms like Mintegral and Newzoo say the majority of Chinese players favor free-to-play over premium games.

According to some experts within the Chinese game industry, the COVID-19 pandemic could help accelerate a change in how those players spend their money. “We’re starting to see Chinese gamers mature,” said Jeff Lyndon of iDreamSky, the largest independent mobile game publishing platform in China. “They’re more reasonable with their spending patterns in-game.”