Chinese hit games reach new heights amid Beijing’s crackdown on the industry
- Tencent’s Pokémon Unite and Honour of Kings, as well as miHoYo’s Genshin Impact, have achieved record-breaking downloads and revenue
- The Chinese government is tightening approval standards for new video games, according to industry insiders
Hit Chinese games – including Tencent Holdings’ Pokémon Unite and Honour of Kings, as well as miHoYo’s Genshin Impact – have shattered global download and revenue records, even as the gaming industry in China faces an intense government crackdown.
Pokémon Unite, a game developed jointly by Tencent and Japanese video game giant Nintendo, amassed more than 30 million downloads around the world within the first week of its mobile release on September 22, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower, making it the biggest ever launch for a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game.
In the same month, Tencent’s flagship mobile game in the same genre, Honour of Kings, surpassed US$10 billion in lifetime player spending following its release in 2015, reinforcing the game’s status as the world’s highest-earning mobile game, Sensor Tower data showed.
Meanwhile, Genshin Impact by Shanghai-based miHoYo also passed a major milestone last month, with its mobile version having made more than US$2 billion in revenue within its first year of launch. The achievement made it “one of the most successful game launches ever”, said Sensor Tower.
At home, however, the success of these games has been clouded by increased regulatory attention. A renewed wave of scrutiny kicked off in August after a state media article called video games “spiritual opium”, reaching fever pitch in September when authorities moved to limit game time for minors to three hours a week, only between 8pm and 9pm on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays.