S. Korea’s game industry grows to record $10.1 billion in 2016, boosted by mobile platform

South Korea’s game industry generated a record 11 trillion won ($10.1 billion) in revenue last year, thanks to growing popularity of mobile games, government report showed on Thursday.

According to a white paper on the country’s game industry released by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Creative Content Agency on Thursday, the Korea’s game industry expanded to 10.9 trillion won in 2016, up 1.6 percent from a year ago. The industry has been growing steadily every year after a brief contraction of 0.3 percent in 2013.

The game industry was mainly led by mobile games whose revenue jumped 24.3 percent last year compared to a year ago. Total revenue generated by personal computer (PC)-use package games, meanwhile, dropped 14.8 percent and PC online games 12 percent as many online users shifted to mobile games.

Still, PC online games accounted for the largest 42.6 percent of total game industry revenue last year, followed by mobile games with 39.7 percent, and so-called PC room games offered by Internet cafes with 13.5 percent.

The report also showed that the country’s game exports increased 2 percent in 2016 from a year ago to 3.97 trillion won. Imports dropped 17 percent to 178.1 billion won during the same period.

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