China Joy sets new attendance records this year

The 17th China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference, also known as China Joy, concluded on Monday, with the number of visitors hitting a record high of 364,701.

According to the organizers, the event also set a new record for daily attendance when it welcomed 134,800 visitors on Aug 3.

Covering a total of 170,000 square meters, this year's event in Shanghai showcased more than 4,000 games and digital entertainment products from over 300 industry leaders across the globe.

According to the 2019 China gaming industry report released during the show, there were more than 640 million Chinese gamers as of the first half of this year, nearly 10 times the number in 2008. Meanwhile, the sales revenue of the Chinese game industry topped 214.4 billion yuan ($30.7 billion) in 2018, up from under 20 billion yuan a decade ago. In 2008, the annual turnover of games independently developed by Chinese companies was just around 1 million yuan. Last year, the figure was in excess of 164.3 billion yuan.

Chinese companies have also achieved impressive results in overseas markets. According to mobile analytics provider App Annie, overseas users devoted 16 percent of their game expenditure to mobile games developed by Chinese companies during the first half of this year. The rate was only 10 percent two years ago.

Sun Shoushan, director of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association, said that Chinese companies have made substantial progress in technology and a large number of them have set up research and development centers and built distribution channels in overseas markets.