The ministry ordered its law enforcement bodies to step up oversight and harshly punish those sites that continued to run such games.

As of Tuesday, many websites offering such games had stopped them.

Many Internet users, however, expressed anger as the games disappeared suddenly.

The crackdown is part of a wider campaign against pornography and what the government deems 'unhealthy' online content, which often includes any political views that differ from those of the ruling Communist Party.

China has an estimated 200 million players of online games.