Almost half of the Chinese population are gamers.

That's according to research from industry trade body CGIGC, which told attendees at the ChinaJoy conference that 668 million people in the country played video games. That's 47 per cent of China's reported 1.4 billion strong population.

Furthermore, the Chinese games industry generated a massive 144.263 billion yuan ($20.23 billion) in revenue for the first half of 2023. That's still a decline from the 150.493 billion yuan ($21 billion) that China's games market generated in the first half of 2021.

“Against the backdrop of a sluggish global gaming market, China’s gaming industry is gradually emerging from a trough and showing an upward trend,” CGIGC director Zhang Yijun said, as reported by Reuters.

“Facing the challenges of the second half of the year, we still need to boost industry confidence.”