China has witnessed an all-time low in mobile game sales following the latest restrictions

At the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, a global lockdown was imposed all over the world. With everything shifting online, mobile games and other similar applications were in high demand. China alone saw the highest number of mobile phone game purchases. However, things have started to change. As everything is on its way back to normal, the sales have started to drop as well.

China saw a 19% drop in sales during the third quarter of the current year, amounting to only $8.23 billion in sales between July and September.

In comparison to the 2nd quarter of 2022, the third one was even more surprising for the gaming companies, reports SCMP. From April to June, the sales were already down by 12.6%, with a total of $9.4 billion made by the companies.

As per the famous video gaming intelligence company, CNG, recent restrictions imposed by the Chinese government may also have a lot to do with this condition. Following these imposed restrictions and the current economic crisis, almost eighty-nine percent of the games were taken down, in contrast to previous months. The famous Chinese multinational holding firm, Tencent Holdings, despite having some of its products on the list of terminated games, still holds the position it took as the company is parent to several trending games.

Lately, China has been taking some strict initiatives to control the time spent by users under eighteen on such applications. In 2021, the government enforced restrictions for the weekend by allowing only one hour for gamers under 18 to practice their games. As a result, the number of users fell by 3.7%, leaving nearly 700 million gamers. Based on the statistics, the figure might reach 730 million users in the next 4 years.

It is considered that if such companies invest in foreign countries, they can easily earn more. The market may soon cross $14.9 billion worth of sales. Despite local restrictions, countries such as the United States or other European countries could offer a nice ground for a company willing to expand its boundaries.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World