China’s video gaming market ended 2023 battered and bruised, but can world-beating titles and innovation save the day?
- Industry regulator ended the year with a draft rule change designed to curb excessive consumer spending on in-game items, sparking market rout
- China-backed games continue to make headlines around the world, and many analysts see overseas opportunities for domestic video game firms
Although 2023 started with new hope, the year was not filled with fun for Chinese video gaming companies and players.
ByteDance, the deep-pocketed owner of TikTok that had aggressively acquired gaming operations, decided to throw in the towel and Blizzard Entertainment left the Chinese market after its 14-year-old partnership with NetEase ended.
Last but not least, the country’s video games regulator ended the year with a draft rule change designed to curb excessive consumer spending on items such as avatars and in-game weapons, wiping out around US$80 billion in market value from Chinese gaming stocks.
The total number of video game players in China has been peaking.
By the end of 2023 there were 668 million gamers in China, a tiny increase from the 666 million at the end of 2022. They jointly spent 303 billion yuan (US$42 billion) on games, or about US$63 per gamer last year – roughly a quarter of the amount spent by US gamers.
The biggest revenue-generating mobile game in 2023 remained Honour of Kings, released by Tencent Holdings in 2015.
