Although the United States and Japan are leading in some areas of industry, both nations were topped by China in one area: the gaming industry.

China's gaming industry raked in more than $22.22 billion in total revenue for 2015, surpassing the U.S. (which earned more than $21.96 billion) and Japan (which earned more than $12.32 billion).

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China's gaming industry revenues surpassed other countries' revenues to clinch the leading spot among the top 100 gaming countries that include South Korea, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Spain and Italy.

There are two possible explanations for this, according to Forbes.

First, this is because of the number of players that play the games - mostly online.

China has the largest internet population compared to other nation in the world at 740,038,000. This is more than twice the size of the internet population of the U.S. which has only 290,534,000 and more than six times larger than Japan's 115,975,000.

Also, Chinese tech companies such as Tencent have been gaining more ground and are enjoying a growing on-line presence via their own games.

For example, Tencent games were some of the highest-grossing Android games in China in 2015. Some titles include King of Glory, Happy Lord, We MOBA, Legend of Mir 2, and GunZ Dash.

Tencent had eight games included in the Top 20 Grossing Android Games in 2015.

Not only that, Tencent also owns stakes in different game companies. One such company, Activision Blizzard, is included in the Top 25 Game Companies according to revenue.

It was also previously reported that Tencent is now the new owner of Riot Games, the maker of the highly-successful multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game League of Legends.

Although these results are because of revenues, it doesn't imply that Chinese games have already surpassed American or Japan-made video games in terms of quality or replayability. But still, game companies should take notice.

TagsUS, Gaming, China Gaming Industry