China’s video games market surpassed $50 billion for the primary time in 2025, rising 5.4% year-on-year to $51.8 billion.
A new report from Niko Partners tasks the market will develop 4% in 2026 to $53.9 billion, and attain $59.8 billion by 2030, reflecting a five-year CAGR of two.9%.
China’s participant base is predicted to succeed in 769 million by 2030, with common weekly playtime rising to fifteen.8 hours from 14.1 hours final yr.
Niko Companions attributed the rise in income and gamers to “stronger-than-expected efficiency from each newly launched titles and legacy evergreen video games.”
Mini-games are a “main development section,” with 80% of Chinese language gamers participating within the style, which represents nearly 20% of cell recreation spending.
Almost half of gamers use quick video apps to find new video games and data throughout platforms.
The report additionally highlights that 66% of Chinese language gamers use various methods to bypass the country’s internet censorship. Amongst respondents, 30.8% play on international servers, 33.6% use gaming accelerators, and 21.9% use VPNs.
Earlier this yr, China included video video games in its 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (2026-2030). Video games have been beforehand categorised as digital cultural merchandise.
Niko Companions recognized 5 key developments for China’s video games market over the following 5 years: development in area of interest genres, elevated out-of-app monetisation, regulatory enhancements, increased shopper spending on premium PC and console titles, and the combination of generative AI.
The agency famous that Chinese language video games corporations are “quickly embracing generative AI throughout improvement pipelines and player-facing options,” together with a “broader increase” in user-generated content material platforms.
Whereas the speedy enlargement of generative AI infrastructure has pushed demand for RAM and semiconductor parts, Niko Companions mentioned that “ongoing innovation, regulatory readability, and sturdy participant engagement proceed to help long-term market development” in China.