China's game market surpassed 114 billion yuan ($17.84 billion) in sales revenues in the first half of this year, an increase of 8.6 percent from the same period last year, said a joint report by the Game Publishers Association Publications Committee and market research firm IDC.

China currently has an estimated 640 million game players, but the growth of mobile game players shows a slowdown from the second quarter of 2019, said the report.

The mobile game market surged 21.5 percent year-on-year to 77.07 billion yuan, and the number of mobile game players reached 620 million, a 6 percent year-on-year climb.

Independent games developed by Chinese firms continued to dominate market sales in China in the first six months of 2019, with sales revenues reaching 92.14 billion yuan -- a year-on-year jump of 15.4 percent. Market share increased to 80.8 percent from 76 percent in same period last year, according to the report.

In overseas markets, the sales revenue of China-developed games was $5.57 billion in the first half of 2019, surging 20.2 percent year-on-year, a higher sales revenue growth than within the Chinese market. The report showed role-playing games, simulation and multiplayer online battle arenas were the most popular, accounting for 83 percent of total sales revenue in the overseas market.

But Chinese game firms are faced with challenges from companies in the US, South Korea and Japan in overseas market.

The US, South Korea, Japan and China's game companies accounted for the highest proportion of games revenue worldwide, reaching 79 percent. Chinese companies only accounted for 16 percent, merely half of Japanese companies, said the news website 21st Century Business Herald, citing Dai Bin, a China-based mobile analytics firm App Annie's.

In the mature market, Chinese mobile game publishers accounted for a low market share of less than 20 percent in the first half of 2019, but the average annual growth of players' spending reached 51 percent, said the news website, citing a joint report by App Annie and Google.

Chinese mobile game publishers in the emerging market took a lead position in shares, with the annual growth of players' spending in India and Russia soaring to 110 and 73 percent respectively. Brazil and Indonesia saw the figures of Chinese publishers remain far less than Japanese counterparts.

Chinese game publishers will have the opportunity to obtain profits in South Korea in simulation games in the future, as South Korean publishers' revenues are primarily found within this genre. In the US, the world's largest game market, Chinese game publishers could strengthen development in more casual and role-playing games, said Dai Bin.

The revenue of 23 listed Chinese game companies in overseas markets reached 100 million yuan in 2018, with 7 companies' revenue growth surpassing 80 percent and 14 surpassing 40 percent, the news website said.

Last year, Tencent and NetEase, two major Chinese game companies, saw a total revenue from overseas AppStore and GooglePlay of $472 million, surging 505 percent from the previous year.

The two companies also invested in several foreign game firms and studios in 2018, including Ubisoft Entertainment, Bluehole, Kakao Games, Grinbding Gear Gemes, Bungie, Jumpship and Improbable.

As more Chinese game companies set their sights on overseas markets, they should promote diversification in their income structure and revenue, said the news website.

The intellectual property value of the gaming world has not yet been realized, said the 21st Century Business Herald, citing an industry insider.

In 1993, the first game-film adapted from Super Mario Bros didn't work out as expected, and after that, many films adapted from games failed. Last year saw things begin to change, with two game films - Warcraft and Angry Birds - obtained modest success in China, with the box office of Warcraft reached 1.5 billion yuan.

The global cumulative box office of another game-film Pokémon Detective Pikachu hit $436 million by July 14.

However, the field of game based films obtaining success is rare, the news website said.

It also warned Chinese game companies will face more competition with the rise of emerging markets; it will test the companies' development capabilities and content innovation in the future.