China is likely to surpass the U.S. to become world's largest online game market this year, according to a recent report by market research firm iResearch.

    China's online game market generated revenue of 20.8 billion yuan ($3.04 billion) in 2008, up 52.2% over the previous year. Over 80% of the revenue came from big, multiplayer online games, with the rest generated from Web games and mobile games.

    The overall market is expected to keep growing at an average annual rate of 20% in the coming five years. And iResearch forecasts that the Chinese online market will be worth more than 68 billion yuan by 2012, which will account for almost half of the global market by then. At present, U.S., China and Korea are the world's top three largest online game markets, making up about 29%, 27% and 21% respectively of the global online game market, according to the report.

    U.S. game companies derive a major part of their revenue from sales of games overseas. South Korea's online game industry generates half of its revenue from games in its home market. In China, however, most of the money comes directly from its own game players. Negatively influenced by the global economic downturn, both the U.S. and Korea markets will see a drop in game exporting, iResearch estimates.

    In China, the enormous base and fast growing of online gamers will further boost China's online game industry, said the report.

    China is currently home to 55.5 million online game players, according to the latest stats by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). In its report, iResearch found that figures for gamers under 18 and above 40 grew at their fastest rate yet last year, though it didn't disclose specifics.

    根據市場研究公司艾瑞（iResearch）最近公布的一份報告，中國有可能在今年超過美國，成為全球最大的網絡游戲市場。

    中國網絡游戲市場2008年創造了人民幣208億元（30.4億美元）的收入，較上年增長了52.2%。80%以上的收入來自多玩家參與的大型網絡游戲，其余來自網頁游戲和移動游戲。

    未來五年，整個游戲市場預計將以年均20%的速度增長。艾瑞預計，到2012年中國網絡游戲市場總規模將超過人民幣680億元，屆時將占全球市場將近一半的份額。艾瑞的報告顯示，目前，美國、中國和韓國是全球前三位的網絡游戲市場，分別占據29%、27%和21%的全球市場份額。

    美國游戲公司的很大一部分收入來自在海外銷售游戲。韓國網絡游戲行業收入的一半來自本土市場。而中國的網絡游戲收入絕大部分直接來自國內的游戲玩家。艾瑞預計，由于受到全球經濟低迷的負面影響，美國和韓國市場都將出現游戲出口下滑。

    報告稱，中國擁有巨大的網絡游戲玩家群體，其人數還在不斷增長，這將進一步推動中國網絡游戲行業的發展。

    據中國互聯網絡信息中心公布的最新數據，中國目前有5,550萬網絡游戲玩家。艾瑞在報告中指出，18歲以下和40歲以上的游戲玩家人數去年增長速度最快，但沒有披露具體細節。