BEIJING — China's mobile game sector posted robust growth of over 49 percent in the first quarter of 2020, a report said.

The revenue of the online game market reached nearly 55 billion yuan (about $7.79 billion) in the first three months, according to a report from CNG, a research agency in the sector.

Amid the epidemic, games have become an important alternative to offline social interaction. The surging users' demand for online entertainment greatly boosted digital consumption, said Wang Xu, co-founder and chief analyst of CNG.

Among the Top 50 of China's mobile game products, intellectual property-adapted games showed upward trend, with games adapted from novels gaining popularity, the report said.

Meanwhile, a number of popular science games related to epidemic prevention were developed by game firms and relevant institutions, which had a good performance in the market, it said.

Earlier data showed sales revenue in China's mobile games market came in at 151.37 billion yuan in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 13 percent.