Mobile gaming is on the rise today. Mobile games have already taken roughly a half of the entire gaming market, and it seems that they’re going to grow even larger in the coming years. More legendary PC or console franchises get ported to mobile devices every year, but the mobile industry has thousands of its own successful projects.
People seem to prefer popular mobile games like Genshin Impact or Bullet Team Force to even more complex console alternatives, but who makes all these popular apps? Well, it seems that a good portion of these projects are created by Chinese developers. Sensor Tower reports that the top 30 Chinese mobile publishers were able to secure about a third of the entire mobile revenue amount in December 2021.
According to more recent data, the top 100 mobile publishers worldwide include 37 China-based companies, including such widely known digital firms as:
- Tencent
- Lilith Games
- FunPlus
- Lingxi Games
and many others. It seems that Chinese studios are rapidly conquering the national mobile markets easily outperforming other local or global projects. In this article, we’re going to review the most important of these firms that have all the chances to dominate the market in the near future.
Tencent Games
Largest and one of the most well-known digital companies in the world, Tencent owns one of the most profitable mobile games in the industry history, Arena of Valor (Honor of Kings). However, it’s mostly played on the local market. Tencent is responsible for mobile renditions of extremely popular franchises such as PUBG or Call of Duty.
Tencent owns a major portion of Supercell, a developer from Finland known for Clash of Clans and Brawl Start, among others. The holding also owns Riot Games, the company behind League of Legends, and almost a half of Epic Games, the team that made Fortnite. Quite an impressive portfolio, isn’t it?
NetEase Games
The second largest mobile gaming company from China, NetEase owns Fantasy Westward Journey, a very well-known (but again, mostly locally) MMORPG launched back in 2001. The company also created a battle royale shooter Knives Out that went huge on the Japanese market.
miHoYo
Founded in 2012 by three enthusiasts, now miHoYo employs more than two thousand people. Experts call it one of the most promising Chinese publishers. This company is mostly known for its recent hit Genshin Impact, received extremely well both locally and in neighboring countries: Japan, Russia, and the USA.
Genshin Impact reached the $1 billion mark within just half a year after the launch, beating Pokémon Go and setting an impressive new record. About 3 million people worldwide play the game every day. The developer employed a curious strategy for promotion, promising more rewards for more people who would sign up.
The marketing campaign was pretty aggressive: the company invested in online ads heavily, forcing millions of people all over the world to watch gameplay footage even before the release. Moreover, miHoYo used its channels in Facebook and Twitter to convince people to play the game.
With more than $100 million spent on development and marketing, Genshin Impact is arguably the most expensive and ambitious mobile game in history. It took about 4 years to finish it, but these efforts paid off and made the studio one of the most widely known companies in the industry. However, the development is still far from being over.
The miHoYo team promises to release a series of major updates with more content, and it may take several years. The game has a pretty balanced audience: both men and women actively play Genshin Impact, but what’s really interesting is that the average player age is 35.
