Young people take part in the Honor of Kings competition, a mobile game in Yantai, Shandong province, May 27, 2023. [Photo/VCG]

China's game market sees a warming increase, with the actual sales revenue reaching 144.26 billion yuan ($20.2 billion) during Jan to June, increasing 22.2 percent from July to December of last year, according to a latest industry report released at the China Digital Entertainment Congress on Thursday.

By the end of June, the number of game players reached a record to 668 million, up 0.35 percent year-on-year, said the report.

The actual sales revenue of self-developed games in the domestic market was 121.78 billion yuan in the first six months of this year, surging 24.5 percent from last six months; the figure in overseas market was $8.21 billion.

The US, Japan and South Korea are the main overseas markets for self-developed games during this period, accounting for 31.77 percent, 19.65 percent and 8.5 percent of the total sales revenue in the overseas market, respectively; the combined share of Germany, Britain and France is close to 10 percent.

The emerging markets in Middle East, Latin America and Southeast Asia also continued to rise.

Mobile games remain dominant in the domestic market with a sales revenue of 106.71 billion yuan in the first six months of 2023, accounting for 73.97 percent.

The actual sales revenue of e-sports in the domestic market reached 64.48 billion yuan during Jan to June, increasing 1.2 percent year-on-year. E-sports became an official medal event in the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou.