How fast are Chinese games growing overseas?

  • CICC said overseas revenue from self-developed games grew 30% year on year in the first half of 2026, the fastest growth in nearly five years. Overseas markets have become an important area for observing growth in Chinese games.
  • Iterating on product content is also a way to sustain engagement and spending: NetEase plans to launch a new version of its mobile game Justice Online on 30 October, expanding its storylines, dungeons, combat skills and cosmetic content.

Which parts of gaming is AI changing?

  • CICC said AI has been incorporated into development pipelines such as art and coding, while collaboration among agents is driving automation in some areas. This means AI’s role has expanded from individual tools to the development process.
  • On the player-experience side, gameplay features such as intelligent NPCs and dynamic storytelling are moving toward implementation. Guosen Securities believes that improvements in large-model capabilities and lower inference costs are pushing AI competition toward application scenarios, product experience and commercialization capabilities, and that applications could accelerate product innovation and commercialization.

What opportunities do game approvals and company strategies present?

  • Wanlian Securities said the number of game approvals in September remained high, reflecting a normalized supply of approvals. It also said that obtaining approvals for both platforms helps expand user reach and extend product life cycles, and leading developers with strong development and dual-platform operating capabilities could benefit.
  • Ourpalm is exploring an AI game creation platform and a game engine. Dianhun Network has applied for patents related to large-model integration in games and AI speech recognition, and has established a joint gaming AI laboratory with NetEase Zhichi to advance technology research and development and applications in gaming scenarios.