It appears that 4 foreign games rank in top 10 in sales and shares. In reality foreign games occupy half of shares and sales, and there seems to be concerns as people think that Korea, which has a strong gaming industry, might fall from an exporting country to an importing country.
According to Googleplay, 4 foreign games ranked in top 10 in sales in Korea. MU Origin (China, 2nd) and Clash of Clans (Finland, 3rd) ranked in top 5. Hearth Stone (U.S.) and Candy Crush Soda (U.S.) ranked in 9th and 10th respectively.
Circumstance for PC online games is just the same. According to Gametrics, 4 foreign games ranked in top 10 in usages in PC rooms in Korea during the first week of June.
Mostly North American games such as League of Legends (U.S., 1st), Heroes of the Storm (U.S., 4th), Starcraft (U.S., 5th), and Diablo (U.S., 9th) dominated the chart.
Popularity for foreign games is not temporary for they were ranked pretty high continuously since a year ago. Foreign games that recently came into Korea such as Clash of Clan, MU Origin, and LOL were ranked in top 10 as soon as they came in. Shortest streak of being ranked number 1 was Clash of Clan at 4 months, and longest streak of being ranked number 1 was LOL at 150 weeks.
Many foreign games also occupy middle rank as well. As of the 15th, more than 10 foreign games, mostly Chinese games, rank in between 10th and 50th in Googleplay ranking where share is more than 25%.
In the past where foreign games were limited to Blizzard games and console games such as Starcraft, now Korea market’s influence has spread to variety of games.
A reason for foreign games to be so popular is because Korean market became easy due to establishment of open market for mobile games. There is an increase of global businesses that personally service popular global games such as Clash of Clan and Candy Crush Soda into Korea.
According to many surveys, Korea is ranked at 4th in size of its gaming industry behind U.S., China, and Japan in the world’s mobile game market. According to market investigation business called Newzoo and Korea Culture & Content Agency (KOCCA), Korea’s mobile game market, which is worth about 2.1 billion dollars (2.4 trillion KRW) in 2014, is worth about 6.6% in global market.
On the other hand, Korea’s gaming businesses were not able to avoid slump. Except for Netmarble, one can hardly find any Korean businesses that were successful this year in mobile games. Middle-standing publishers and developers that were successful in the early days of mobile games are now having hard time with funding, manpower, and supply and demand of games. Because there is a rapid decrease of release of new online games, Korea has given its market to foreign games.
Import has increased, but export is not finding its way. Export of Korean games in 2013 was 2.715 billion dollars, which is about 2.9% increase compared to 2012. According to Game Report in 2014, export in 2014 was 2.755 billion dollars, which is about only 1.5% increase compared to 2013.
After export of Korean games was 2.4 billion dollars in 2011, which is 48.1% increase compare to 2010, growth of Korean games has rapidly decreased in just 4 years.
Staff Reporter Kim, Siso | siso@etnews.com