Chinese mobile games have seen a remarkable expansion in the overseas market throughout 2020 as the pandemic has driven a booming stay-at-home economy, data from the mobile research firm Sensor Tower shows this week.

The top 30 profitable Chinese mobile games raked in $9.24 billion from the App Store and Google Play last year, up 47 percent year on year from $6.3 billion in 2019, the firm said.

A total of 37 Chinese mobile games, 12 more than in 2019, earned a total of more than $100 million in overseas markets in 2020.

Japan replaced the United States to become the most popular overseas market for Chinese game publishers in 2020.

"Compared with European and American game publishers, Japanese players are more adapted to the Chinese ones in terms of culture and aesthetics," said Sensor Tower analyst Nan Lu.

She added that despite the high promotion cost and increasingly fierce competition, the Japanese gaming market is set to continue drawing in a large number of game publishers.

Last year, the top 30 Chinese mobile games garnered $2.8 billion from the Japanese market, surging 81 percent year on year.

The mobile version of the battle royal game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, commonly known as PUBG Mobile, continued to top the list with overseas earnings of $1.06 billion in 2020. Since its debut in early 2018, the mobile game has raked in a total of $2.1 billion from the overseas market.

Genshin Impact, an open-world mobile game published by the miHoYo, saw its overseas revenue reach $160 million in October last year, a new record for the Chinese game's overseas monthly earnings. The previous revenue record was held by PUBG Mobile, which pulled in $90 million in July 2019.

(With input from Xinhua)