(Yicai Global) Jan. 30 -- Foreign sales of China’s top 30 mobile games slumped 20 percent last year from the year before, putting pressure on Chinese publishers who have been turning to overseas markets as growth slows at home, according to the latest data.

China’s most popular 30 games earned USD9.2 billion on Apple’s App Store and Google Play in 2022, a return to 2020 levels, according to market research firm Sensor Tower.

The plunge ties in with a worldwide drop in spending on the two platforms, with overall gaming revenue sinking 9 percent last year from the year before to USD78.8 billion.

MihoYo was the top earner among Chinese game developers thanks to Genshin Impact and other popular games, while Tencent Games came second, bolstered by PUBG Mobile and several new offerings.

Foreign sales have become an increasingly important source of revenue for Chinese publishers as earnings stall at home. China's gaming revenue plunged 10 percent last year from the year before to CNY265.9 billion (USD39.4 billion), while the number of players dipped 0.3 percent to 664 million people, according to GPC data. It is the first time that both figures logged negative growth since 2014.

The US is the largest overseas market for Chinese games and was worth USD2.7 billion last year, a drop of 15 percent year on year. Four Chinese games, Genshin Impact, Call of Duty: Mobile, State of Survival and Puzzles & Survival, stayed among the top 20 in the US all year.

Japanese players were the second biggest fans of Chinese games, generating USD2.3 billion in revenue last year, a dive of 22 percent from 2021. Six games including Genshin Impact and NetEase’s Knives Out were among the country's 20 biggest earners.

There is still a lot of room for Chinese game developers to increase their share of the overseas market, CITIC Securities said in a recent research report. Revenue could reach USD32.9 billion by 2025.

Editor: Kim Taylor