China is the largest video game market on earth, and that fact alone makes marketing directors want a piece of it. Gaming looks like a shortcut to the under-35 audience that ignores television and skips pre-roll ads. Sometimes it is. Often it is an expensive way to buy applause from people who will never buy your product. This article sorts one from the other, with the 2026 numbers and the regulatory rules that actually constrain what a foreign brand can do.
I am Olivier Verot, founder of GMA. I have been in Shanghai since 2012. My teams have built WeChat mini-games for consumer brands, bought esports sponsorship inventory, and talked several clients out of a game IP collaboration that would have burned their entire year of China budget on one campaign.
How big the Chinese gaming market really is in 2026
The China Game Industry Report published in December 2025 put domestic market revenue at RMB 350.79 billion, roughly USD 49 billion, up 7.68% year on year. The player base reached 683 million, up 1.35%. Both are records. Growth is now single-digit, which tells you something important: this is a mature market, not a land grab.
The old figure floating around the web, “$40 million in 2020”, was a typo repeated for years. Ignore it. Here is the real segment breakdown, and what each line means if you sell cosmetics, cars or snacks rather than games.
| Segment | 2025 revenue (RMB) | Growth | What it means for a non-gaming brand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile games | 257.1 bn | +7.9% | 73% of the market. Any campaign that assumes console or PC is aimed at the wrong screen. |
| Mini-program games (WeChat, Douyin) | 53.5 bn | +34.4% | Fastest growth, lowest barrier to entry. The realistic option for most foreign brands. |
| Console games | 8.4 bn | +86.3% | Loud growth from a tiny base. Still 2.4% of the market. Not an audience channel. |
| Domestic titles sold overseas | USD 20.5 bn | +10.2% | Chinese studios now export. Their IP has weight outside China too. |
The licence freeze is over, but the rules stayed
Two things happened between 2021 and 2023 that still shape how the industry behaves.
First, the regulator stopped issuing publication licences, the 版号, from July 2021 to April 2022. No licence, no legal monetisation in China. Studios closed. Then approvals restarted and kept accelerating. The NPPA cleared 1,771 titles across 2025. In 2026 the pace is higher still: 453 in the first quarter, and 779 titles by the end of May, of which 25 were imported. Roughly 2,300 approvals are expected across the full year. The freeze is genuinely behind us.
Second, in December 2023 a draft set of rules appeared that would have capped spending incentives inside games. Listed game stocks fell hard. The draft was pulled from the regulator’s website within weeks and never took effect in that form. Nobody in the industry has forgotten it. Chinese publishers now vet brand partnerships more carefully than a European marketer expects, and approval on their side can take longer than your creative production.
The minors rules and why they matter to you
Since 2021, under-18s may play online games one hour per day, from 8pm to 9pm, only on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Real-name registration and facial recognition enforce it. Enforcement is imperfect, surveys have found large numbers of minors borrowing adult accounts, but the legal position is clear.
For a brand this is good news wearing a bad disguise. The gaming audience you can legally reach in China is adult, employed and spending its own money. Anyone still pitching you “reach Chinese teenagers through games” has not read the regulation. Separately, Chinese advertising law is strict about content aimed at young people, and platforms remove creative that frames heavy play as the route to rewards.
Four ways a non-gaming brand can actually use games in China
1. In-game advertising, and where it stops
Western-style programmatic in-game advertising barely exists in China. There is no open exchange dropping your billboard into a stadium. Advertising inside a Chinese title is negotiated directly with the publisher, and everything that appears in the game passes through the publisher’s own compliance review, because a title’s licence is at stake and yours is not.
Where the inventory really sits is in rewarded video ads inside free mini-games and mid-tier mobile titles. A player watches 30 seconds to get a life back. It is cheap, it scales, and it converts about as well as any other interruptive format, which is to say modestly. Treat it as reach, not as brand building.
2. IP collaborations with major titles
This is the format everyone asks for. Honor of Kings alone has run collaborations with Uniqlo, Luckin Coffee, Hema and MAC. Genshin Impact has done KFC and Häagen-Dazs. One market analysis counted around 800 brand tie-ups across 50 games in a single year. The mechanism is simple: the game gets a real-world touchpoint, the brand borrows an emotional attachment it could never build itself, and both sides get social conversation for free.
Now the part agencies avoid saying out loud. A tier-one game IP collaboration is not a media buy, it is a licensing deal, and the quotes we see for a top-five title start in the high six figures in US dollars before you produce a single unit. Add exclusivity, in-game assets or a character skin and it climbs fast. The publisher chooses you, not the reverse. They protect their players and they refuse brands that do not fit.
Mid-tier titles are the sane entry point. A game with 5 to 20 million monthly players, a defined demographic and a publisher who returns your calls will cost a fraction of that and reach an audience you can actually describe to your CFO.
3. Esports as a media channel
China’s esports sector closed 2025 at RMB 29.33 billion, about USD 4.02 billion, up 6.4%, with an audience above 495 million, per figures released at the China Esports Industry Annual Conference and reported by Esports Insider. Mobile titles account for 58.6% of that market, PC for 25.3%. Again: mobile first.
Esports behaves like sports sponsorship, which makes it legible to a European marketing team. You buy team jerseys, tournament naming, streamer segments on Douyin and Bilibili. Pricing is transparent and audiences are measurable. The catch is the same as in football: sponsorship builds recognition slowly and rarely moves next quarter’s sales. Budget it as a two-year commitment or skip it. Our longer piece on the esports scene in China covers the team and league structure.
4. WeChat mini-games, the channel nobody pitches you
This is the most underrated option for a foreign brand, and the numbers back it. Mini-program games generated RMB 53.5 billion in 2025, growing 34.4%, by far the fastest segment. WeChat mini-games passed 500 million monthly active users, with more than 400,000 developers building on the platform. Around 300 titles cleared RMB 10 million in a single quarter and close to 70 hold over a million daily users.
Why it works for a brand: a mini-game needs no download, no app store, no game publication licence when it is a branded promotional experience rather than a monetised title. It opens from your WeChat account, a QR code on packaging, or a shared link in a group chat. And it drops the player back into your own WeChat space when they finish.
That last point is the whole reason to do it. A game IP collaboration gives you attention that evaporates in 48 hours. A mini-game gives you a follower, a member ID, and permission to message that person again. Build the reward around a coupon, a members-only item, or a draw for a limited edition. The same logic behind a WeChat H5 campaign applies, with a stronger reason to share it.
Typical build cost for a solid branded mini-game runs from USD 15,000 to 60,000 depending on mechanics, which is one to two orders of magnitude below a tier-one IP licence.
Case study: Hugo, a Belgian confectionery brand
Hugo runs a family chocolate and biscuit company near Antwerp. He came to us in 2024 with a Tmall flagship doing about EUR 40,000 a month and flat for three quarters. His agency at the time had proposed a game IP collaboration. The quote was EUR 380,000 for a mid-size mobile RPG tie-in, roughly his entire annual China budget.
He had already tried the obvious things. Douyin video ads brought traffic that did not convert, because chocolate is an impulse category and his price sat 40% above local competitors with no story attached. A KOL push around Chinese New Year produced one strong week and nothing after.
We killed the IP deal and spent EUR 32,000 on a WeChat mini-game instead. The mechanic was deliberately dumb: catch falling praline ingredients in a Belgian workshop, 45 seconds a round, share your score to unlock a second attempt. Every QR code on his gift boxes led to it. Winning scores unlocked a discount valid only in his WeChat store, not on Tmall.
Why it worked, and this is the part that transfers to other brands: the game was not the campaign, the follower capture was. Over seven months it added 44,000 WeChat followers at an acquisition cost near EUR 0.7 each, against the EUR 4 to 6 he was paying through paid social. Those followers received four messages a year, not four a week. WeChat store revenue reached about 30% of his China turnover within a year, at a margin Tmall does not allow. Total revenue grew 61% over the period. Not a miracle, just a cheaper door into his own channel mix.
Who should do this, and who should not
Gaming works as a channel when your buyer overlaps with the player. That means beauty, streetwear, sneakers, energy drinks, snacks, phones, cars under EUR 40,000, and anything bought by a 20 to 35 year old for themselves.
- Worth real money: consumer brands with a Chinese e-commerce presence already running, a product under EUR 100, and a reason for a young buyer to care.
- Worth a mini-game only: food, spirits, household goods, mid-market fashion. Build the game, capture the followers, skip the IP licence.
- Prestige spend, be honest about it: high jewellery, private banking, industrial B2B, medical devices. A game collaboration here buys a press release and a nice slide for headquarters.
- Do not bother: brands with no China e-commerce channel to send the traffic to. You will pay to entertain people who cannot buy from you.
The failure pattern is always the same. A brand spends heavily on a collaboration, gets a spike of Xiaohongshu posts, and has no owned channel waiting to catch any of it. Two months later there is nothing left to show. Build the destination first, then buy the traffic.
FAQ
Do I need a game licence to run a branded mini-game in China?
Generally no. The publication licence applies to commercial games that monetise through purchases or in-game currency. A promotional mini-game that gives away coupons and collects followers is treated as marketing content, not as a published game. It still needs an ICP filing for the hosting entity and it still must satisfy WeChat’s own review, which takes days rather than months. Confirm your specific mechanics with a local counsel before you build, especially if you plan any paid element.
How much does a collaboration with Honor of Kings or Genshin Impact cost?
For a top-five title, expect a licensing fee starting in the high six figures in US dollars, before production, media and inventory. Character skins, in-game events and category exclusivity push it into seven figures. The bigger obstacle is not price, it is selection. Publishers protect their player communities and turn down brands that do not fit the game’s world. Mid-tier titles with 5 to 20 million monthly players cost far less and are far more willing to talk.
Can I still reach young Chinese gamers given the minors restrictions?
You can reach adults, and that is who you want anyway. Under-18s are limited to one hour a day on Fridays, weekends and holidays, with real-name and facial verification enforcing it. Marketing aimed at minors through gaming is legally risky and reputationally worse. The commercially interesting cohort is 20 to 35, which represents the bulk of spending in Chinese mobile games and has actual disposable income.
Is console gaming worth targeting in China now?
Not as a marketing channel. Console revenue grew 86% in 2025, which sounds spectacular until you see it is RMB 8.4 billion against RMB 257 billion for mobile, so 2.4% of the market. The growth came from a handful of successful domestic titles. Console gamers in China are a small, enthusiast, PC-adjacent group. Unless you sell hardware or peripherals, put your budget on mobile and mini-games.
Read also: Gaming Industry in China: How to Publish and Promote
Talk to us before you sign a game licensing deal
GMA has been building WeChat mini-games, negotiating game IP collaborations and buying esports inventory for consumer brands in China since 2012. We tell clients when a collaboration is worth the licence fee and when it is a slide for the board. We build the owned channel that catches the traffic, because a campaign without a destination is a donation.
Send us your product, your budget and your existing China channels. We will tell you within a week whether gaming is a real route for you or a distraction. Contact us here.
Olivier Verot, founder of GMA, Shanghai. LinkedIn. Approval data cross-checked against PocketGamer.biz and TechNode.
