NPD reports that digital downloads, social games, mobile games, rentals and other "non-retail" sales of games are quickly gaining pace on the sales of retail (packaged) games in the US and in Europe. In fact, in the fourth quarter of 2011 the US market realized sales of about $2 billion in non-retail sales, with $4 billion in retail sales. In Q3 non-retail sales there were $1.6 billion. This implies that 2011 non-retail sales were probably about $6 billion. And that means that China's PC online games revenue is larger than all "non-retail" (non-packaged) games revenue in the US, and much larger than PC online games revenue there. We'll see how long it takes the US to catch up to China, or if it can happen since demand in China does not seem to abate.

The Chinese government states that in 2011 there were 31 Chinese online game companies that exported 131 titles overseas for revenue of $360 million, which is a 56.5% increase over foreign sales in 2010. There is a big government and business-led push to have games companies expand internationally. Some say that these companies have been too insular and dependent on the Chinese market, and others say that the companies can gain from taking their online games expertise abroad. The export total revenue is equal to roughly 5% of domestic online games revenue for the year.

356 Chinese companies filed for IPO in 2011, raising $61.5 billion in the stock markets. These figures are down from 2010. On the other hand, 2011 was a record year for VC and private equity investments into China's Internet industry, with $5.8 billion put in. E-commerce, online gaming and social networking were the three sectors that garnered the most attention and investments within the Internet industry.