China’s game market saw a robust growth in the first half of this year, with revenues of the sector rising at an annual rate of 21.9 percent, an official said on July 29.

Game sales in the January-June period reached 60.5 billion yuan ($ 9.9 billion), said Sun Shoushan, deputy director of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, at the 13th China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference in Shanghai.

Sales of original online games jumped by one third to 45.8 billion yuan, said Sun, adding that mobile game sales surged 67.2 percent to 20.9 billion yuan.

With huge moneymaking potential, the games industry, particularly mobile gaming, is attracting more and more investors, said the official.

Nearly all games developers have stepped into mobile gaming and even more companies have entered the new business through mergers and acquisitions, he said.

China had 517 million game players by the end of last year, according to the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association.