China's developers winning the game

China's first AAA-rated video game developed by Game Science, Black Myth: Wukong, based on the 16th-century Chinese classic Journey to the West, won the Best Action Game and Players' Voice awards at The Game Awards 2024.

Its global success — 28 million copies sold and $900 million in revenue, with 25 percent from overseas — marked a milestone for China's gaming industry.

The China branch of IGN, a game review website, said that the game's "outstanding quality meets all the expectations over the years. This is a truly competitive game on the global stage".

This achievement is far from an anomaly. Data from the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association, the national game industry research institute, and China gaming database CNG show that revenue from Chinese self-developed games in overseas markets grew from $3.08 billion in 2014 to $16.37 billion in 2023, a more than fourfold increase over 10 years.

The 2024 China Game Industry Report shows that China's self-developed games garnered $18.56 billion overseas last year, a nearly 13.4 percent increase from the previous year.

In the mobile games sector, among the 100 top-grossing titles in the world, 40 are from China, with revenue reaching $2.11 billion, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the global mobile game revenue.

This success is fueled by a strategic mix of cultural creativity, technological flexibility, and smart market tactics, industry insiders say.

Chinese developers have learned to repackage ancient narratives and thoughts into globally resonant experiences.