In 2009, when smartphones and iPhones began to gain popularity, foreign developers decided to promote their applications and games, especially to the Chinese market. Just in a couple years, the situation has changed. It is obvious that China has managed to catch up with their competitors and even get ahead of them. Now, China is the number one game developer worldwide! They regularly create updates, replicas and completely new projects. Due to this productivity, it is not difficult for them to compete with Europeans and Americans.
According to statistics, most people prefer to play mobile games. On second place, there are the games on computers and laptops, and only then - tablet. Due to the fact that not all games are registered in official stores, it is quite difficult to determine the volume of games produced. This is especially true for applications on Android. In fact, there are only few big worldwide stores like Google Play or the App Store, while in China there are about three hundred various stores with tons of applications. Thus, counting of the games produced is not that simple.
This year, Chinese developers plan to spend on the development of mobile games more than 16 billion dollars. By 2022, this number will be even bigger. Chinese are ready to spend money on games. Many of them will buy official applications and will not download pirated versions anymore. On average, a Chinese spends about forty dollars on various games a year. So, this industry is considered very profitable.
The most successful in the Chinese market is MMORPG games. Chinese games of this genre are made in a very good quality even if they are designed for phones, not PC. They are always very bright and colorful, but not too complex and will still easily work well even on a weak-graphic smartphones.
Other popular genres are racing simulators and simple quests. Most Chinese prefer to play games on smartphones during subway trip or at times when they are waiting for something. Therefore, bright and not very complex games that distract them from reality are valued. There is another interesting point. Unlike Western gamers, Chinese gamers do not seek to compete and prove something to their friends and various games with a system of bonuses and rewards are not highly valued. Also, Chinese are attracted to bright graphics. Furthermore, Western users like realistic characters, while Chinese prefers cartoon characters and animation.
There are currently about 250 successful game developers in China. Among them, about 50 companies are very popular, and top of the most famous and successful are Baidu, Alibaba Group, Happy Elements. The leader in this area is Tencent. The company entered the market in the late 90s. Company also owns the WeChat messenger. Social networks, applications and search engine from developers from Tencent successfully replace foreign analogues in China. Most of the products that this company produce immediately become hit and reach various tops.
We should also talk about the most popular games in China today. As mentioned before, China especially love MMORPG. Two most popular games of this genre are Honor of Kings and League of Legends. They are known not only in China, but also far beyond its borders. Another popular game of the same genre is Journey to the West. In this game, national motives are traced what makes it especially interesting. Instead of the usual duels with monsters, the characters here can engage in martial arts duel and another plus point is the application has beautiful graphics. All the characters and their movements are well-thought out with the pretty simple and logical game flow.
We can't forget a very popular Chinese genre - three in a row and the favorite application of many Chinese - Happy Match. This is an interesting and popular game with cartoon graphics. The graphic style strongly distinguishes it from other similar applications. However, Western version of "three in a row" games are not very popular in China, with first ranking of these games are always taken by Chinese applications. After all, Chinese developers are able to understand better the needs of their audience.
The next popular genre - runners. Today, most Chinese is a fan of simple 2D game called Everyday Cool Runner. It has a kind of simple graphics and gameplay, which can not be found in any other games. However, there are some drawbacks. In this game, the runners should be as simple as possible so that the users can pass the next level at any time, and if they close the game, they can return to their daily flow. But, it doesn't work like that in this game. After all, the game is tied to social interactions and requires constant improvement of equipment. Therefore, giving the application a couple of minutes a day will not succeed.
This is the main list of popular Chinese games in 2018. Apart from those mentioned previously, Chinese are also actively playing various music and card ga,es, although they are less popular among the others.
As you can see, things are very good with the game industry in China. New interesting applications come with enviable regularity. It is also surprising how quickly good games are gaining popularity. After all, it would seem that the market is already so full, so hardly anyone would want to download a new “free time killer” to their phone. But in practice, this is not the case at all - colorful and interesting games immediately attract the attention and solvent audience. Therefore, it can be said that the industry will continue to develop, and China will remain the leader in creating games for mobile devices.
