Korea’s game market is estimated at 9.75 trillion won in 2012, up 10.8 percent from the previous year’s 8.80 trillion won. By this year’s end the market is projected to have surpassed the 10-trillion-won level and up to 12 trillion won by 2015. (image credit: jareed @ flickr)
SEOUL, Korea, Oct 23 (Korea Bizwire) – Korea’s game market is estimated at 9.75 trillion won in 2012, up 10.8 percent from the previous year’s 8.80 trillion won. By this year’s end the market is projected to have surpassed the 10-trillion-won level and up to 12 trillion won by 2015.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism and Korea Creative Contents Agency published on October 23 the “2013 White Paper on Korea’s Game Industry” detailing the industry trend, user numbers, technology, and policy measures to support the industry.
According to the white paper, the game industry in 2012 was largely led by the online game category, with the fast emergency of mobile game titles. Online games accounted for 69.6 percent of the market with 6.78-trillion-won sales in 2012, followed by mobile games (800.9 billion won) accounting for 8.2 percent of the market.
As for export figures, the amount of game exports in 2012 was US$2,638.9 million, up 11 percent from the previous year, of which online games took a 91.4-percent share while mobile games took a still-small export portion of 6.4 percent ($169.0 million).
Based on 2012 figures, Korea’s game market accounted for 6.3 percent of the world’s game market whose size is $111.75 billion in the same year. The biggest export market for Korean game developers and publishers was China with a 38.6-percent share of the total export volume. This is followed by Japan (26.7%), Southeast Asia (18.8%), North America (7.7%), and Europe (6.0%).
The total number of persons employed in the game industry was 95,041 as of the end of 2012. Of these, 52,466 (55.2%) are engaged in production and distribution while the remaining 42,585 (44.8%) are working in retail and others.
Written by 300 game industry experts, the White Paper was compiled by surveys on 1,000 game users, 479 production and distribution companies, 340 Internet cafes, 170 game arcades, and 56 game-related educational institutions. The two-volume White Paper is 1,000 pages long and will be available to general readers from October 24 when it is sold in major bookstores all around the country.
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