HONG KONG, July 27 (Reuters) – China's video game player has grown to a record of 668 million, a government-run game industry association said on Thursday, as the world's biggest gaming market returns to growth after a bruising crackdown. The number of gamers, which is accurate as of end-June, represents about half of the population. Industry association CGIGC, which announced the data at an industry conference in Shanghai, also said sales revenue of the domestic gaming market reached 144.263 billion yuan ($20.23 billion) for the first half of this year. "Against the backdrop of a sluggish global gaming market, China's…