The number of online gamers in China rose 23 percent to 40.17 million last year, according to an industry survey.

Regular subscribers comprised 22.36 million of the total, up 30 percent from 2006, said the survey, which was released on Wednesday at an annual gaming industry conference held in Suzhou City of Jiangsu Province. The survey was jointly conducted by the committee on gaming work of the Publishers Association of China and IDC, a U.S.-based technology analysis firm.

Sales of online games in China topped 10.57 billion yuan (about 1.45 billion U.S. dollars) last year, up 61.5 percent.

Industry analysts estimate that China's online gaming population will hit 84.56 million by 2012, with regular subscribers totaling 50 million and sales of 26.23 billion yuan.

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2008)