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In the first half of 2024, the domestic mobile game market as a whole recovered.

According to data recently released by the Game Publishing Working Committee of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association, the actual sales revenue of the domestic mobile game market was 107.517 billion yuan from January to June 2024, a year-on-year increase of 0.76%. Among them, the small game market performed strongly, with revenue of 16.603 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 60.5%.

According to the monitoring of Diandian Data, a global mobile application and game data monitoring service provider, the scale of China's mobile game market reached 151.797 billion yuan in the first half of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 25.37% and a month-on-month increase of 11.84%.

Both data show that the revenue scale of China's mobile game market will increase year-on-year in the first half of 2024. The difference in statistical data is mainly due to different statistical calibers and perspectives. The data of the Game Working Committee focuses on the revenue side of manufacturers, while the data of Diandian focuses on the user expenditure side. There are also channel costs between consumer expenditure and manufacturer revenue.

According to Diandian Data, among the top 10 games in terms of revenue in the Chinese mobile game App Store in the first half of 2024, Tencent, NetEase, and Mihoyo accounted for 6, 2, and 2 games respectively. Among the new games, Tencent's "Dungeon & Fighter: Origins", Paper Games' "Love and Deep Space", and X.D. Games' "Let's Go Muffin" performed well.

In addition to the overall recovery of the domestic market, game companies also performed strongly in overseas markets. According to data from the Game Working Committee, the actual sales revenue of China's self-developed games in the overseas market in the first half of the year was 8.554 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 4.24%. Among the new games, 4399's "Legend of the Mushroom Hero" and X.D.'s "Let's Go Muffin" performed well in overseas markets.

The number of domestic mobile game licenses issued has increased. Data shows that in the first half of 2024, the National Press and Publication Administration issued a total of 688 game licenses, an increase of more than 20% year-on-year compared with the first half of 2023.

Domestic mobile game market returns to growth in the first half of the year

Data recently disclosed by the Game Publishing Working Committee of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association shows that from January to June 2024, the actual sales revenue of the domestic game market was 147.267 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.08%. The number of game users reached 674 million, a year-on-year increase of 0.88%, setting a new record.

In the segmented market, mobile games accounted for 73.01% of the actual sales revenue of the domestic game market. From January to June, the actual sales revenue of the mobile game market was 107.517 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.76%. The proportion of client games continued to increase to 22.93%, while web games continued to shrink, accounting for 1.59%.

At the same time, according to the monitoring of Diandian Data, the revenue scale of China's mobile game market in the first half of 2024 (including the total amount of user consumption within the statistical scope, excluding other revenue models such as advertising monetization and third-party recharge) reached 151.797 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.37% and a month-on-month increase of 11.84%.

Figure 1: Revenue scale of China’s mobile game market

Both the Game Working Committee and Diandian Data show that China's mobile game market revenue in the first half of 2024 will grow year-on-year. The difference in data is mainly due to differences in statistical caliber.

Tencent owns 6 of the top 10 revenue-generating games, with small games growing rapidly

According to Diandian Data statistics, in the first half of 2024, the revenue scale of strategy games, action games, and role-playing games from the App Store will significantly surpass other categories, followed by card, simulation, and adventure games.

Diandian data shows that among the top 10 games in terms of revenue in China's mobile game App Store in the first half of 2024, there are 6 games from Tencent, NetEase and MiHoYo each have 2 games.

Figure 2: Top 10 mobile game App Store revenue in China in the first half of 2024

"Dungeon & Fighter: Origin" is a new game launched by Tencent on May 21. Since its launch, it has continued to dominate the game best-selling list. In addition, new games such as "Love and Deep Space" by Paper Games, "Let's Go Muffin" by X.D. Entertainment, "Beyond the World" by NetEase, and "Three Kingdoms: Conquering the World" by Bilibili also performed relatively strongly in the first half of 2024.

Since the second half of 2024, many new games have performed outstandingly, including NetEase's "Naraka: Bladepoint" mobile game and X.D. Company's "Heart-beating Town".

It is also worth noting that in the first half of 2024, the mini-program mobile game (referred to as "mini-game") market performed strongly. According to data recently disclosed by the Game Publishing Working Committee of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association, from January to June, mini-game revenue was 16.603 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 60.5%. Among them, the actual sales revenue generated by in-app purchases was 9.098 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 81.56%; the advertising monetization revenue was 7.505 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 40.75%.

Overseas sales revenue increased year-on-year in the first half of the year

In addition to performing well in the mainland, "going overseas" has also become an important strategy for domestic game companies in recent years and has gradually become an important source of performance growth.

According to data from the Game Working Committee, China's self-developed games had actual sales revenue of US$8.554 billion in overseas markets in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 4.24%. The main reason was that some newly launched products became popular, bringing significant growth.

Figure 3: Overseas sales revenue of self-developed products in the first half of recent years

Diandian data monitoring shows that in the first half of 2024, China's overseas mobile game revenue reached 62.84 billion yuan, a month-on-month increase of 2.89% and basically the same as the previous year. If the impact of exchange rates is excluded, the overseas revenue monitored by Diandian has actually increased significantly year-on-year.

According to data released by the China Game Working Committee, among the top 100 self-developed mobile games in overseas market revenue in the first half of 2024, strategy games still accounted for the highest proportion, at 32.66%; role-playing games accounted for 10.48%.

Among the new games, those that performed well overseas in the first half of 2024 include 4399's "Legend of the Mushroom Hero" and X.D. Company's "Let's Go Muffin" and other products.

Game licenses increased by more than 20% year-on-year in the first half of the year

The number of mobile game licenses issued in the first half of this year increased significantly both year-on-year and month-on-month.

According to statistics from the National Press and Publication Administration, a total of 688 game licenses were issued in the first half of 2024, an increase of 25.55% year-on-year from 548 in the first half of 2023.

Among them, a total of 628 domestic game licenses were issued in the first half of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 20.54%; 60 imported game licenses were issued in the first half of 2024, an increase of more than 100% year-on-year compared with 27 in the same period last year.

Figure 4: Game license issuance in recent years

In general, the issuance of game licenses tended to be stable in the first half of 2024. The normalization of game licenses has also injected more fresh blood into the game market and brought more diverse game content.

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(Article serial number: 1818908796647510016/CJT)

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