Recently, the overseas publishing platform Rokky conducted a market survey among 300 game developers in North America and the UK. The report shows that 80% of the surveyed developers plan to bring their games to the Chinese market before 2028. China has become the third highest priority overseas region for Western publishers, and many respondents have experience publishing games in China over the past five years.
China has over 700 million gamers, with an annual market revenue reaching $50 billion. Mobile game users account for as high as 70%, and this huge commercial potential attracts numerous overseas studios.
However, the survey also revealed widespread blind spots among overseas teams regarding the Chinese market. 43% of developers believe that cooperation and integration barriers are the main obstacles to entering the domestic market, 38% are concerned about piracy and intellectual property risks, 32% are unsure how to market to Chinese players, and 11% have no understanding of China's game licensing rules. Nearly half of the developers believe that without partnering with local Chinese institutions, it is almost impossible for their games to be officially launched in China.
Only 44% of developers correctly identified WeGame as a domestic PC game store, while 27% of respondents mistakenly regarded it as a game publisher. Many overseas teams are still unfamiliar with China's internet environment and continue to plan promotions using overseas advertising channels that are inaccessible in China. Additionally, many developers misunderstand the online habits of Chinese players. The report points out that directly copying Western publishing and marketing strategies is difficult to adapt to the Chinese market, requiring extensive localization efforts for successful implementation.
The report also mentions the trend of bidirectional expansion in the industry. Nowadays, more and more Chinese games are going global, with domestic titles like "Black MYTH - Steam Edition: Wukong," "Genshin Impact," and "Arena Breakout" achieving impressive results overseas. The two-way exchange between Eastern and Western game markets is becoming increasingly frequent.