China Self-Developed Games' Overseas Revenue Surges Over 30% in H1 2026

In the first half of 2026, the actual overseas sales revenue of China's self-developed games reached $12.37 billion, approximately RMB 83.56 billion, a year-over-year increase of more than 30% and the largest gain in nearly six years. Meanwhile, domestic revenue from self-developed games grew about 16% year over year. The report indicated that sustained operation of long-running titles and steady contributions from new products underpinned this growth. In the same period of 2025, overseas revenue for Chinese games grew by 11%.

During ChinaJoy 2026, the B2B exhibition hall for industry professionals hosted more than 500 exhibitors, with foreign companies accounting for over 46% of the total. Advertising platforms, payment companies, data analytics firms, and localization service providers expanded their exhibition presence significantly. Many service providers increased their booth space compared with previous years, and some companies upgraded from standard booths to large custom-built displays. According to the event organizer, the B2C hall for consumers featured more than 350 exhibitors.

The global mobile gaming market showed a general downturn. Sensor Tower data showed that overseas mobile game in-app purchase revenue reached $33.1 billion in the first half of 2026, down 6% sequentially, while downloads totaled 22.2 billion, a sequential decline of 4%. On customer acquisition costs, Adjust data indicated that the global average cost per install for game apps rose from $0.43 to $0.56 over the past year, a 30% year-over-year increase. In the United States, the cost per install climbed from $1.31 to $1.71, an increase of 31%.

In June 2026, 38 Chinese publishers ranked among the top 100 global mobile game publishers by revenue, collectively earning $2.06 billion (about RMB 13.9 billion), accounting for 41.6% of the total revenue of the top 100 publishers. Among overseas products, Century Games' Whiteout Survival and Kingshot, as well as Lemon Micro's Gossip Harbor, took the top three spots in revenue among Chinese overseas games. Estimates suggest that Whiteout Survival's cumulative global revenue is approaching $5 billion, while Kingshot's cumulative in-app purchases have exceeded $1.5 billion.

The product structure of Chinese game exports is shifting, with light and mid-core mobile games and mini-games emerging as new growth engines. Leading companies maintain steady overseas revenue, while small and medium-sized enterprises and independent teams are gradually gaining traction. Artificial intelligence technology is compressing upfront costs in localization, creative production, and market testing for overseas expansion. An IDC report showed that AI adoption in marketing scenarios among overseas-expanding companies has reached 78.5%. A recent Unity survey of 300 developers found that competition and user acquisition costs were the top two challenges facing game studios, cited by 33% and 30% of respondents, respectively. In 2025, global spending on game app user acquisition reached $25 billion, up 3.8% year over year, while Chinese developers' spending grew 22%, above the global average.

By region, Southeast Asia saw a 6% year-over-year increase in app installs, with entertainment and social app installs rising 94% and 99%, respectively. Chinese apps accounted for 24% of installs in Indonesia and 22% in the Philippines. In Latin American markets such as Colombia, Chinese apps represented more than 60% of installs in the entertainment and social categories. North America remained the largest listing market for Chinese apps, with 77% of Chinese overseas apps launching in the United States, which generated 32% of overseas revenue for China's self-developed mobile games.

Around the global expansion of Chinese game companies, marketing, payment, data analytics, and localization service providers have formed a more finely divided industrial chain. In the first half of 2026, the growth in Chinese game export revenue coincided with a general decline in global mobile game traffic, while rising customer acquisition costs and increased difficulty in user acquisition became common industry conditions.