Asia and especially China are by far the biggest markets for mobile games, but it is not easy to monetize games there. The experts from Smartions give hints on how to approach releasing a game in China.
As the Chinese mobile gaming market continues to grow, it’s certainly not a market that can be ignored. This year the Android dominated Chinese mobile games market is on track to overtake the US and Japan as the world’s largest mobile gaming market and revenue from mobile games hit 90.96 billion Yuan (14 billion Euro) in Q1 2025, an increase of 75.3 percent from 2024 and a 22.3 percent increase from the previous quarter. However, many see it as a market with rampant piracy where users won’t pay for games. All pain and no gain.
There are a lot of false assumptions made by those on the outside of the market as to root cause where they see Chinese players in their games but no money from China, and at the same time misinformation regarding the Chinese mobile gaming market is propagated by those who appear to have a vested interest in keeping it »confusing« to the outsider. Even today we encounter some China app stores who feel they need to »explain« China to us, yet at the same time display surprisingly little knowledge of the market they operate in or they are simply spinning a yarn.
Granted, China’s mobile gaming market is subject to extreme fragmentation and trying to understand it can be an Alice in Wonderland trip down the rabbit whole where things make less and less sense. It many ways it’s chaos. However as the Chinese expression goes, »heroes are born in chaos« (?????) and there is plenty of opportunity in China’s mobile ecosystem. We have had games that have outperformed the rest of the world combined in China alone with strong retention and conversion. That’s not the case for every game, but it illustrates that Chinese players will and do pay for good quality game content.
Having been involved in bringing foreign mobile games to the Chinese market for a number of years, we have learnt more than a few things; some through hard lessons, and some through pig-headed persistence. So here we will share some basic insights that we feel will be of use to those who are starting out on their own adventure in this chaotic yet truly exciting market.
China is VERY different to other global markets
In China there are over 300 Android app stores. Google Play, PayPal, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and many other social and payment platforms that are common in the rest of the world have no presence in China or are blocked by the great firewall. This means your game will be cut off from Google services. Doesn’t sound like a big deal at first, but it can be where a game is closely coupled with Play Games Services including Social Leaderboards, as well as Google Wallet, Cloud Messaging, and even Maps.
Android is King but Google isn’t wearing the crown
Despite Google services being blocked in China, Android is king and there are many custom Android ROMs from various manufacturers present in the domestic Chinese market such as Xiaomi, Huawei, Alibaba, Baidu, OPPO, Lenovo, etc. Android’s market share in China is hard to measure. Many Chinese users have more than one phone or have dual SIM setup so things get a bit blurry here, but based on different data sources and our own analytics, we estimate Android’s market share to be approximately 80 percent or more. So if you want to see meaningful return from China, you need to be on Android.
Of course there are intermittent rumours regarding Google Play being officially allowed to operate in China, and that would certainly make things interesting but the Chinese government have not been fans of that idea to date. Even if Google Play was to be unblocked in China, there are many local market incumbents that would not like to relinquish what market share they have and it would be no easy road for Google. Whilst individually none of the local China android app stores has anything comparable to the market share Google has outside China, Chinese smartphone users are used to an ecosystem where they may have five or more of their preferred App store marketplace apps installed on their phone.
300+ app stores but Google ain’t one
With so many local app stores, some of which are owned by larger entries with broader interests (e.g. Baidu, Alibaba, etc.), there is a lot of inter-store politics to content with. Developers are often stuck in the middle of a turf war between stores which results in »policy« changes that can cause additional headaches if you are not prepared for them. An example of a recent incident was where one of the larger app stores launched its own analytics solution and from one day to the next announced that they would no longer accept games or apps with Baidu mobile analytics (»Baidu Tongji«) integrated. A little inconvenience given that Baidu’s solution is one of the most commonly used analytics solutions by developers in China.
Releasing to a single app store is not an option unless you have an incredibly strong and established brand or IP that will draw players to that store despite them not having the stores’ marketplace app installed on their phone as one of their preferred stores. Any single store lacks the reach to address the broader market despite claims to the contrary; if you spend enough time talking to stores or publishers, you will doubtless encounter the »we are No. 1 in China« or »We are like Tencent« statements often enough. Even when you are dealing with an app store directly, you probably won’t be dealing with a single point of contact. The business development manager who is typically your first contact will have some level of English, those in operations and development support most probably won’t (in China less than 1 percent of the population speaks English but many more can read English). So it is best to have a partner or publisher who will handle app store mediation at all levels.
It’s not the Asian market, it’s the Chinese market
Some lump China into »Asia« when speaking about the mobile markets in the Far East. Geographically and culturally indisputable, but it is very important to understand that China is extremely different to Japan or Korea where Google Play still matters. Fragmentation is significant and one needs to be prepared for the impact organizationally and technically. This is why it is important to work with a partner in China who can guide you through the confusion, mediate with the different app store channels in China and provide a technical solution that ensures your development team don’t have to spend their days (or rather weeks and months) integrating with a bunch of poorly documented app store, social, and ad SDKs or attempting to satisfy a multitude of different store restrictions in terms of third-party integrations and maximum APK size (most stores have a 100 megabytes APK limit).
Your game may already be in China
Many question how it can be that if Google is blocked in China why they see so many downloads of their game in China. The answer is simple, a number of stores in China will pull your game’s APK from Google Play automatically. Which would be great but it also means payments won’t work so Chinese users cannot pay for items in your game. Sharing won’t work if it depends on Facebook or Twitter, etc. Additional download content won’t be accessible and if you haven’t dealt with localization to simplified Chinese, then based on the overall package, users in China may be saying unflattering things about your game without you even being aware that it was available to them.
Free to Play is the only model for China
Free2Play is the only model that works in China. Stores do not support a paid download model.
A nasty surprise for those not using a F2P model is that where you have a free and paid version of your game, both are often pulled by certain China app stores from Google Play and made available for free in China. So for those who are against a Free2Play model, fair enough, but you may just have killed your chances of monetizing in a market the can be equal to the rest of the world combined. This is why as part of any release plan we recommend you give serious consideration to China from the outset. Free2Play is the only model that can effectively monetize in China and enables greater control of content to keep you ahead of the pirates.
Monetizing players without Google Play / Wallet
Whilst Google Wallet isn’t an option for Chinese users, there are independent mobile billing (Alipay, UnionPay, etc.) and carrier billing (China Mobile, Telecom, and Unicom) alternatives.
It can be difficult to access these payment solutions in any useful way without a partner billing solution that opens up all methods to the end-user. Carrier billing will be impossible to get to without having a Chinese business entity in the mix. So don’t waste time trying to get to and build a self-developed solution.
Although the fees are higher (usually 30 percent on any transaction) carrier billing is important and SMS payments offers greater conversion to paying players through convince. Nonetheless, insisting on carrier billing from the outset can be a mistake. App stores only take a cut on carrier billing where a carrier channel build is provided, and the carriers themselves can be useful allies when promoting your game where it is already monetizing well in-market, but both independent and carrier operated app stores have minimum expectations in terms of daily revenues. Switching on carrier billing from first launch means they will know exactly how your game performs from day one, and if early earnings do not reach their benchmark, then they may dismiss your game as ever being worthy of promotion. With the carriers and stores you don’t get a second chance.
Unless your game is a massive IP that players in China have been eagerly awaiting, carrier billing should only be enabled after an initial stealth launch in China with only independent billing options enabled, then when KPIs have been analyzed and any necessary steps have been taken to optimize retention and conversion, carrier billing can be enabled.
To ensure greater conversion, price points of virtual currency packs and other purchasable items will need to be calibrated to China norms. Having a lower entry-level pricing is common but this depends on the quality of the title. Entry pricing for In-App Purchases is usually between 2 (0.30 Euros) and 10 Yuan (1.50 Euros). In some ways it’s better to start your stealth launch with slightly higher pricing so reductions are possible at a later point. Virtual Currency pack pricing should also be modelled with carrier billing limits for individual transactions in mind (depending on the carrier limits can be in the 3 to 7 Euros range). In the end you will need to heed the recommendations of your China partner.
Beware of the rating system
Major app stores in China tend to use a »common« rating system. At least the grading used is fairly standard even if the criteria behind them differs from store to store and is often subjective. This grading ranges from a top »S« or »S+« (»Super«) rating to »A«, »B«, »C« ratings.
This rating matters. Whilst you or your partner’s relations to individual store contacts also matter a great deal when it comes to negotiating premiers and promotional cooperation, the rating your game is given also plays a key role in this. One thing to be aware of is that if your game gets a lower rating on certain channels you will then be blocked for months from submitting that game or any other game for consideration for promotion.
Time to market is key
When your game has been in-market for some time »unofficially« before you start to consider China, poor player feedback due to broken billing and social integration, no localized version, and general issues can mean you already inherit a bad store rating before you even consider officially launching your game in China. The larger the delta between your release outside of China and your official China release, the more control you lose, the more your brand can be impacted, and the harder it can become to get promotion for what may be considered an »old« IP.
This sounds like a no-win scenario. That’s not the case, but to ensure your game is positioned for success in China, make China part of your release plans from the outset. Make sure you learn from early feedback and adapt quickly, don’t spend six to twelve months adapting a title for China with a partner without knowing if you will see return. The only true learnings are to be found in-market but a stealth launch approach is more often the better approach. Sometimes it makes sense to look at your back catalogue of games and test the waters with an older title and see what can be learnt before launching for the first time in China with your flagship game.
Monetizing via ads – The »catch-22«
Whilst F2P is the model that works best for China, there is a place for ads and the fact that some China stores pull APKs from Google Play means you may see some revenue from ads in China already. However, many western ad networks have no points of presence in China or have difficulty serving ads. Furthermore, driving ad traffic from China to Google Play is like driving a truck into a wall. Chinese users are cut off from Google Play and therefore this represents a bad deal for those on the other end paying on a CPC basis for ads that are served in China but where traffic is directed to Google Play. Fortunately other types of ad inventory such as brand ads present far less of an issue.
When officially publishing your Android game in China, bizarre things start to happen when you have ads in your game. Your game may already exist on some of the larger stores as it was pulled from Google Play, but when you go to officially publish, you may be told that ads are not allowed under the store »policy«. This can be very frustrating when you see that your game was already taken by the store in question without permission. The choices are rage against the machine or deal with it.
Maybe you think that having ads present but disabled is the way to go, later enabling them when the game is live on stores. Unfortunately, games being officially published are subject to both manual and automated review. Meaning your APK will be scanned and if any third party SDK components are detected that are on the blacklist, then your submission fails.
Dealing with this means accepting that you may will have to have an ad-enabled and ad-free version of your game to satisfy all channels. If your game’s only revenue stream is via ad display, then working with an ad network that has experience in China is a must as app store distribution channels will be more limited but working with the right partner can ensure you have good reach across channels which do not reject ad-enabled games.
Don’t expect anyone to buy your game
Don’t expect for anyone to buy your game outright. Sure, some stores and publishers will offer minimum guarantee for your game if it is of a certain caliber, meaning AAA. Be realistic about your IP, it may make nice money but China app store expectations for healthy daily revenues are a lot higher than you may expect.
Whilst cultural tendencies may mean a store business development manager in China will say positive things about your game, don’t mistake this for »they want to buy my game«. So if your game isn’t the in the current top-earning game list, don’t approach such negotiations with a »My game is awesome, what are you going to do for me?«-attitude as you will probably come away with nothing and have wasted many months of time with negotiations that seem to take as many steps backwards as forwards.
Where an offer and draft agreement is on the table, be diligent in reviewing licensing details to be fully aware what you are giving up and understand the long term implications; the other party will probably be looking for ownership of all source code and assets, so attention should be paid to any clauses with regards to ongoing revenue share split on clones built from the same code and assets. Also be aware that any agreement made directly with a solely China based publisher concerning publishing in China will be governed under Chinese law regardless of the jurisdiction you specify in your contract and rulings by courts outside China are not enforceable in China. So it’s better to work with a partner who has interests outside of China as well or where the agreement is not directly / solely with the Chinese entity.
Just because your game is not the top-earning game, it doesn’t mean it won’t make money in China, but the approach needs to fit the IP and you have to understand that the Chinese partner you select has to deal with a massive amount of complexity, fragmentation, approvals, licenses, and channel mediation on your behalf. This is not the West. That’s why in the majority of cases it’s better to be more pragmatic about getting your game to market quicker, controlling your brand and IP in market, and learning. The longer you take to get to market, the more users your game may already be churning in China as the shelf-life of your game diminishes.
Social discovery & visibility matters
There is also a lot of innovation coming out of the Chinese mobile space and this is particularly evident in the social realm where WeChat (Weixin) and others offer arguably more sophisticated social platforms than those in the West, so Chinese users are not crying into their cornflakes because they can’t get on Facebook.
This is an important factor when launching a game in China as more and more Chinese players are finding games via social discovery whereas in contrast a number of the major app stores have reduced their download forecasts across all promotional placement slots when compared to previous years and are quite socially »detached« or are trying to build their own walled garden ecosystems.
The effective use of social channels such as WeChat, Sina Weibo, Tencent Qzone etc. will continue to be of increasing importance when it comes to promoting your game in China and we have seen promotion via Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) gain more installs than significant front page app store promotions when campaigns are properly planned out.
The significance of social promotion and discovery cannot be understated in a market where other forms of promotion are largely dependent on negotiating banner promotions with often fickle app stores and where performance marketing falls on its face when confronted with both app store and payment provider fragmentation and politics.
In-game integration with Chinese social networks is vital to the continued visibility and growth of your game and Chinese players tend to share a lot more than their western counterparts, particularly where sharing is well implemented and incentivized (e.g. a small amount of virtual currency in exchange for a share). Of course Social Media in China is subject to more regulation than in the west so once again this is an area where you should take guidance from your China partner.
Localization & Cultural Adaption (but not too much)
Quality localization of your game to Chinese is a must. »Cultural adaption«, »Culturalization« or »Transcreation« is something often oversold and quite intangible depending on the game. In an RPG it will be of more importance than in a basic pattern matching puzzle game.
It is important to adapt your game for China, including the pricing model, difficulty (which tends to need to be increased for China) and also address any issues with violent or adult content, but don’t overthink »cultural adaption« trying to second-guess your Chinese audiences likes and dislikes. Instead keep in mind that the best feedback is real player feedback. Your game is designed and built the way it is for a reason, don’t rip its soul out during the course of adapting it for the Chinese market.
Keeping your sanity and making money in China
In case the message wasn’t clear already, when it comes to China don’t go it alone. We’ve heard many time that people think they can take a DIY approach and don’t need a partner because they already have several millions of downloads in China. In pretty much all these cases when we ask if they make any money from China, the response is along the lines of, »no, but it’s all piracy anyway«. This is a massive simplification of an extremely complex market. Perhaps it’s the easier, but not the correct answer.
Chinese players DO pay for games where the game is good, the business model is right, and where they CAN pay. Often ARPPU and conversion is higher than outside of China. Piracy will always exist and of course it is more of a factor in a fragmented market such as the Chinese mobile market, but to a large extent this can be managed if you have a good partner in-country looking after your interests.
The Chinese mobile market is far from simple and cannot be navigated successfully alone, the content of this article is pretty high-level but when you are seeking for a Chinese partner or publisher, discussing the topics raised in this article should be a good test of how well they really know the market.
As with everywhere else in the world or life there is no guarantee of success in China but if you’ve gone to the effort of developing your game, ignoring China can potentially mean leaving a very large chunk of money on the table. China certainly can be a land of opportunity for mobile game developers if your approach is right and you have the right partner in China who can handle distribution, promotion and operation. So whatever path you chose, don’t treat China as an afterthought and make sure you have a partner who can help guide you around the pitfalls and position your game for success.