During the first half of this year, the consumption of Chinese female players jumped 13.5 percent year-on-year to hit 24.2 billion yuan ($3.5 billion), according to the China Gaming Industry Report released during ChinaJoy.

Liu Jiehua, research director of the report, explained that Chinese gaming companies had previously overlooked the spending power of female players, and this resulted in the limited development of games targeted at them. However, the tide is now changing as more developers diversify their focus.

One of the companies that has been ahead of the curve is Shanghai-headquartered gaming company Shinezone Network, which in 2011 launched its business management simulation game Flower Shop.

Targeted at women in European and US markets, the game became one of the most profitable of its kind within less than a year, according to Facebook rankings.

At this year's ChinaJoy, Shinezone launched a campaign to identify quality domestic games catered to female players that it could help break into overseas markets.