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(jù)市場(chǎng)研究公司艾瑞（iResearch）最近公布的一份報(bào)告，中國(guó)有可能在今年超過美國(guó)，成為全球最大的網(wǎng)絡(luò)游戲市場(chǎng)。

    中國(guó)網(wǎng)絡(luò)游戲市場(chǎng)2008年創(chuàng)造了人民幣208億元（30.4億美元）的收入，較上年增長(zhǎng)了52.2%。80%以上的收入來自多玩家參與的大型網(wǎng)絡(luò)游戲，其余來自網(wǎng)頁(yè)游戲和移動(dòng)游戲。

    未來五年，整個(gè)游戲市場(chǎng)預(yù)計(jì)將以年均20%的速度增長(zhǎng)。艾瑞預(yù)計(jì)，到2012年中國(guó)網(wǎng)絡(luò)游戲市場(chǎng)總規(guī)模將超過人民幣680億元，屆時(shí)將占全球市場(chǎng)將近一半的份額。艾瑞的報(bào)告顯示，目前，美國(guó)、中國(guó)和韓國(guó)是全球前三位的網(wǎng)絡(luò)游戲市場(chǎng)，分別占據(jù)29%、27%和21%的全球市場(chǎng)份額。

    美國(guó)游戲公司的很大一部分收入來自在海外銷售游戲。韓國(guó)網(wǎng)絡(luò)游戲行業(yè)收入的一半來自本土市場(chǎng)。而中國(guó)的網(wǎng)絡(luò)游戲收入絕大部分直接來自國(guó)內(nèi)的游戲玩家。艾瑞預(yù)計(jì)，由于受到全球經(jīng)濟(jì)低迷的負(fù)面影響，美國(guó)和韓國(guó)市場(chǎng)都將出現(xiàn)游戲出口下滑。

    報(bào)告稱，中國(guó)擁有巨大的網(wǎng)絡(luò)游戲玩家群體，其人數(shù)還在不斷增長(zhǎng)，這將進(jìn)一步推動(dòng)中國(guó)網(wǎng)絡(luò)游戲行業(yè)的發(fā)展。

    據(jù)中國(guó)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)絡(luò)信息中心公布的最新數(shù)據(jù)，中國(guó)目前有5,550萬(wàn)網(wǎng)絡(luò)游戲玩家。艾瑞在報(bào)告中指出，18歲以下和40歲以上的游戲玩家人數(shù)去年增長(zhǎng)速度最快，但沒有披露具體細(xì)節(jié)。