Ten Most Popular Online Games in China
"Strong Buy" Rated U.S.-Listed Chinese Stocks (February 17, 2012)
The table below lists the 10 most popular online games in China, as of 10/15/2007, according to a survey by 17173.com, the leading online gaming information website in China.
Analysis:
1. Perfect World (PWRD) claims three spots in the list. This recent IPO is covered by six Wall Street firms (Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Citigroup, CIBC, SIG, Pali Research). All of them have a "Buy" rating on the stock.
2. Fantasy Westward Journey (FWJ), World of Warcraft (WoW), and TLBB are the only three games that received more than 80K votes. Other games trailed by a large margin. This shows that the flagship games of NetEase (NTES) and The9 (NCTY) continue to lead the market, and TLBB's developer and operator, Sohu (SOHU), has become a strong competitor in the industry.
3. After two and a half years' operation, CDC Games' Yulgang is still very popular. Yulgang is one of the earliest free-to-play, item-based online games in China. Its sustained popularity demonstrates that item-based games can have a long life cycle if they are operated appropriately. CDC Games is a subsidiary of CDC Corp. (CHINA) and the pioneer of the free-to-play, item-based business model in China.
4. Industry leader Shanda (SNDA) did not claim any spot in the Top-10 list. Is this a bad sign? Not really. Actually this demonstrates that Shanda is not overly dependent on any single game, and its revenues are very diversified. This reduces the "hit-or-miss" risk which has been investors' major concern on online gaming stocks. From this perspective, Shanda may be the safest investment among all the Chinese online gaming companies.
Table: 10 Most Popular Online Games in China
| Ranking | Game | Operator | Ticker | Votes | % of No.1 |
| 1 | Fantasy Westward Journey | NetEase | NTES | 128,409 | 100% |
| 2 | World of Warcraft | The9 | NCTY | 96,224 | 75% |
| 3 | TLBB | Sohu | SOHU | 81,988 | 64% |
| 4 | CrazyRacing | TianCity | N/A | 68,091 | 53% |
| 5 | Legend of Martial Arts | Perfect World | PWRD | 62,275 | 48% |
| 6 | Perfect World II | Perfect World | PWRD | 58,806 | 46% |
| 7 | Yulgang | CDC Games | CHINA | 53,228 | 41% |
| 8 | Zhuxian | Perfect World | PWRD | 45,822 | 36% |
| 9 | Tianji Online | FerryGame | N/A | 42,002 | 33% |
| 10 | Da Hanghai Shidai Online | Choei Net-Tech | N/A | 36,447 | 28% |
Source: 17173.com
SUBSCRIBE to China Analyst's FREE Daily Email Updates
Related:
Comments