Can be explained by changes in the macro economy, but this explanatory power is already very good.
In other words, the Chinese Special Database game industry is an out-and-out strong cyclical industry! Sorry, there is really no "lipstick effect" in the media and entertainment industry! The macro indicator with the strongest ability to explain the income of the game industry is the per capita disposable income of urban residents. From the quarterly Special Database data comparison, we can see that since 2007, the game industry income and per capita disposable income (both not excluding inflation factors).
Have changed in the same direction in most cases. There have only been two exceptions: in the fourth quarter of 2014 and Special Database the second and third quarters of 2018, the per capita disposable income and the game industry income did not change in the same direction, and the latter was still affected by the suspension of the game version number. From a logical point of view, the rise and fall of disposable income will indeed affect the Special Database propensity to consume games. Why is the Chinese film industry non-cyclical, but the game industry is strongly cyclical?
We think there are at least three reasons: First of all, the scale of the Chinese game industry is very large; even according to Special Database the most conservative estimates, the game market size in 2018 exceeded 200 billion yuan, more than three times the size of the film market. Such a large industry cannot be without cycles. Secondly, the number of product supply in the game industry is much larger than that in the film industry. In 2017, more than 9,300 games Special Database were approved to be launched in China, but only more than 700 movies were released after review, so the game industry was slightly affected by the product cycle. Third, the game industry has suffered less external disturbances in the past few years.