Chinese games are dominating the upper ranks of the global mobile game market. Breaking away from the past criticism of being focused on mass-produced games, the recognition of game development skills, led by Genshin Impact, has significantly changed the status of Chinese games in recent years.
On the 13th, according to market research firm Sensor Tower, four of the top 10 global mobile games in revenue last month were Chinese games. The top spot was claimed by Tencent's Honor of Kings. This game recorded a revenue growth rate of 71% in April compared to the previous month, reclaiming its position as the world's highest-grossing mobile game. Sensor Tower noted that Honor of Kings maximized its revenue through continuous content updates and collaborations with brands like Sanrio. The second place was taken by FunPlus's Last War: Survival, and the third place was occupied by Century Games' Whiteout Survival, while MiHoYo's Honkai: Star Rail ranked ninth.
Among the top 10 games by revenue, only one was from a Korean developer. That game is KRAFTON's Chinese version of PUBG Mobile, called Peacekeeper Elite. Launched in May 2019, this game was developed with technical advice from KRAFTON. KRAFTON receives a commission based on a certain percentage of revenue, along with re-contract bonuses for Peacekeeper Elite. Peacekeeper Elite has similar gameplay to PUBG Mobile, along with the transfer of user data. In addition, two games from the United States, one from Israel, one from Turkey, and one from Japan were included in the top 10 revenue games.
Recently, the global status of Chinese games has been rising. Chinese game companies, which used to benchmark Korean games and only produced mass-produced games until the early 2010s, are now leading the gaming market. Genshin Impact can be cited as a representative Chinese game. Released by MiHoYo, Genshin Impact ranked among the top in mobile game revenue in major countries such as the United States, Japan, and Korea. Within a month of its release, it generated $245 million (approximately 277 billion won) worldwide, reaching the top of global mobile game revenue. This marks the highest launch performance in the history of Chinese games.
Industry insiders cite the issuance of game publishing licenses by the Chinese government as a major cause of the growth of Chinese games. A game publishing license is a service authorization that China issues for games released within its borders. It is necessary for distributing games and selling in-game currencies in China. During the freeze on license issuance, numerous small and medium-sized game companies collapsed, with 9,700 game firms halting operations. However, this resulted in large companies like Tencent and NetEase rapidly increasing their market share in China while also working on expansion into overseas markets. Consequently, recent major Chinese game companies have been acquiring game developers and intellectual property (IP).
A game industry official said, "As the scale of the Chinese game industry grows, many developers have been投入, and as a result, Chinese games have strengthened their technology in areas such as graphics, optimization, and cross-platform capabilities," adding, "Korean game companies also need to expand large-scale projects to escape the uniformity of mass-produced mobile games to succeed in the global market."