Approval freeze chills mobile game market

China's mobile game market is suffering from its slowest revenue growth in a decade, amid tighter regulation of a market that experts think is reaching saturation point.

China's licensing freeze lasted nine months till December, contributing to a 15.4 percent year-on-year growth in the country's mobile game industry last year, compared to the 41.7 percent year-on-year increase in 2017, according to a recent report released by gaming database Gamma Data Corp.

Buoyed by 605 million Chinese players, the nation's mobile gaming revenue reached 133.96 billion yuan ($19.82 billion), accounting for more than 60 percent of the total game sales.