BEIJING, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- China's sports industry will continue robust expansion in the next few years, with a growth pace much faster than the global average, a private report said.

The sector will see a compound annual increase of 15 percent in the next five years, in part due to more active mass participation, global accounting and consulting firm PwC said in a report Wednesday.

The growth will outpace the global average speed, which PwC predicted at 7 percent.

Winter sports including ice hockey and skiing, as well as mass participation sports such as marathons and cycling are expected to see the most vigorous development.

E-sports will also embrace an enormous growth opportunity in the years to come, with the PwC calling the Chinese market "the spearhead" in global e-sports boom. Revenue of the e-sports sector is expected to reach 86.3 billion yuan (around 12.53 billion U.S. dollars) this year, up from 30.6 billion yuan in 2015.

Zhou Xing, a PwC partner based in Beijing, expressed optimism about the outlook of China's sports industry. "More major global sports events will come to China in the future, and Chinese people will pay more attention to and increase their participation in sports."