The Top 30 China Game Makers of 2026

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• Strinova
• War Robots

Chinese publisher iDreamSky has operated for over 15 years as an established operator in China’s games market, acting as a gateway for some of the world’s top publishers to the country’s lucrative market.

Over the years it has published games such as Sybo’s Subway Surfers, Imangi Studios’ Temple Run 2, Pixonic’s War Robots and Playrix’s Gardenscapes in China. Not just content with the publishing arena, though, in 2024 it launched anime-style tactical hero shooter Strinova on PC. that same year, iDreamSky also opened its first international office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with plans to act as a publisher partner for developers across the MENA region and the world – not just in China.

The company’s president and co-founder Jeff Lyndon was awarded the first-ever Eastern Trailblazer accolade at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards in 2019.

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• Hill Climb Racing 2
• Township

MyGamez has built its reputation around helping international mobile studios bring their titles to China.

Operating across Finland and China, the company works with developers and publishers to navigate the popular Chinese market, having partnered with a host of big names including Fingersoft, Zynga, Playrix, Wildlife Studios, Playrix, and Small Giant Games.

One of its strongest success stories is its long-running relationship with Fingersoft and the Hill Climb Racing franchise, where it handles publishing and localisation.

Last year, MyGamez CEO and founder Mikael Leinonen shared that the company ranked 21st on Qimai’s top 30 iOS game publishers in China by revenue for May 2025. Games credited to MyGamez included Playrix’s HomeScapes, GardenScapes, and Township.

MyGamez has established itself as a partner for those looking to break into one of gaming’s largest markets – all while helping international developers and publishers understand the regulatory landscape and opportunities available.

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• Infinity Kingdom
• Echocalypse: Scarlet Covenant
• League of Angels

Chinese developer and publisher, which has operated across browser and mobile, is one of the more established names in China’s games industry. It’s perhaps best known for its MMORPGs League of Angels and League of Angels 2, which has found popularity both home and, importantly for getting on this list, abroad too.

In the past, it has worked with various global games companies, including Supercell to bring Brawl Stars to China, KamaGames to bring social casino to India, and even acquired Germany developer and publisher Bigpoint a decade ago in 2016. On mobile, it’s also found success over the years with titles like Legacy of Discord and Dynasty Origins, among a host of others.

Along with the giants of China’s games industry, Yoozoo was an early sign of the ambition of Chinese publishers to expand to global success and an early sign of their ability to achieve it.

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• Mystery Town
• Amaze GO!
• Vita Mahjong
• Tile Explorer – Triple Match
• Meowdoku

One of the most interesting things about putting together these lists is not just gaining insights into the industry movers and shakers, but uncovering companies that, outside of the local market, may not be recognisable names internationally.

Learnings is one of those companies. It is a prolific casual game publisher, including Oakever Games’ Paint by Number, Wood Block, and Explorer, as well as Vita Studio’s Vita Mahjong. In 2025, Learnings ranked 10th for global game downloads (source: AppMagic).

This year it ranks seventh and the fast-growing company looks set to have its best year yet for revenue and downloads, thanks to titles like Oakever’s Amaze Go, Vita’s Vita Mahjong and the lucrative merge title Mystery Town from Cedar Games. Yes – it’s yet another successful Chinese publisher that operates in the merge games market, too.

ASSOCIATED COMPANIES

Vita Studio

Oakever Games

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• Cash Frenzy
• Lotsa Slots
• Jackpot World
• Cash Club Casino

SpinX Games is a rarity on this list of China’s Top Game Makers: it’s a social casino developer, and a highly successful one, too. It has a string of hits that have generated around $1bn from overseas markets – one example of many in this guide of how China’s reach extends globally, with hits across a variety of genres and even platforms.

Its top titles include Jackpot World, Lotsa Slots, and Cash Frenzy. In 2021, the company’s success attracted the overtures of Netmarble, which acquired the developer for approximately $2.19 billion. That came after it generated around $432 million in sales throughout 2020 when it was labelled as the third-largest mobile social casino games company in the world. Today, it still stands as one of the world’s top grossing publishers in the space.

ASSOCIATED COMPANIES

Netmarble

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• Three Kingdoms: Strategy for Domination
• Trickcal: Chibi Go
• Jujutsu Kaisen Phantom Parade
• Mistbound

Chinese online video sharing platform BiliBili, which has hundreds of millions of users, has its own games division. This arm keeps itself mighty busy, involved in plenty of publishing deals for licensed games and anime RPGs across a variety of platforms.

Whether it’s Jujutsu Kaisen Phantom Parade, Dead Cells or Fall Guys, the company is well positioned to help international studios reach an audience in China. Key titles include Three Kingdoms: Strategy for Domination and Trickcal:Chibi Go, both released in just the past couple of years, with the former accumulating hundreds of millions of dollars to date.

Recently, Bilibili has been confirmed to be involved in Guild Wars spinoff Mistbound, melding the franchise’s MMO heritage together with tactical deckbuilding gameplay. Player feedback is expected to play an important role in the game’s development, bolstered by Bilibili’s community-focused approach.

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• Three Kingdoms Tactics
• Grandmaster Above
• Nobunaga’s Ambition: True War
• Tree of Savior

You’ll know China’s Alibaba as a giant in the world of online retail, which often makes headlines in the West in particular thanks to the billions of dollars it makes each year from Singles Day.

As well as ecommerce, the firm also runs a successful games division with studios such as Lingxi Games and Qookka Games. Outside of retail, it’s found enormous success with Three Kingdoms Tactics, which has generated nearly $4bn to date from just the App Store and Google Play. And like many in this list, it’s another successful 4X strategy title.

Other top games in its roster include Grandmaster Above, Nobunaga’s Ambition: True War and Tree of Savior. Meanwhile, web games also became a feature of the global AliExpress store, further establishing its credentials in the games space and its ability to experiment and adapt gaming to retail, too.

ASSOCIATED COMPANIES

Lingxi Games

Qookka Games

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• Sword x Staff
• Overmortal
• Asktao

G-bits is a public online games company in China that says its mission is to deliver origins, high-quality and wholesome online games to the market. Under the publishing name of Boltray games, it has published successful titles in the idle RPG and MMORPG spaces such as Overmortal and Asktao.

Last year, it launched Sword x Staff, another idle RPG that has already crossed the $100 million mark, finding audiences in both China, Japan and other countries across Asia.

While these titles have proven some of its most successful on mobile, its portfolio isn’t limited to just these three games. Over the years it has launched the likes of Aobi Island, Dungeon Survivor II: Dark Tide, and Monster Never Cry, to name a few, proving its ability to consistently launch new games and, in Sword x Staff, find new hits.

ASSOCIATED COMPANIES

Boltray Games

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• Heartopia
• Etheria: Restart
• Ulala: Idle Adventure
• Human: Fall Flat

X.D. Network is both a developer and publisher that has successfully brought games into China, as well as exporting its own titles globally. The company partnered with 505 Games and Curve Digital to bring No Brakes Games’ physics platformer Human: Fall Flat to mobile in China. Within six days of hitting that market, the title officially sold two million copies in the country.

Other successful mobile titles from the publisher include Ulala: Idle Adventure, Go Go Muffin, and Girls’ Frontline. More recently, the company launched multiplayer life simulation game Heartopia across platforms – swiftly becoming one of the publisher’s top performing mobile titles.

X.D. is one of the few companies successfully bringing together development and publishing capabilities to release successful titles across genres.

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• Evony: The King’s Return

You might notice a theme in this list: Chinese publishers excel in developing successful 4X strategy games that garner hundreds of millions to billions of dollars worldwide. One of those companies is Top Games, responsible for Evony: The King’s Return.

The title is estimated to have accumulated some $2.4 billion across the App Store and Google Play to date, per AppMagic. And also like many others, it now leverages casual gameplay, such as the gate mechanics, in its gameplay and creatives. If you work in mobile gaming, you have surely seen a plethora of ads for this game.

Top Games has also released other titles including Run! Goddess, Infinity Clan, and Kings Legion, but none of those come close – so far – to the continued success of Evony.

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• Rise of Kingdoms
• Clash of Critters
• AFK Journey
• Palmon: Survival
• Dislyte

Lilith Games has built a strong portfolio of games over the years, combining its long-running live service successes with new releases.

Its biggest title has been 4X strategy game Rise of Kingdoms, racking up an estimated $3.7bn across the App Store and Google Play. Idle RPG AFK Arena, which celebrated its seventh anniversary in 2026, has surpassed $1.5bn in lifetime player spending.

Lilith has historically flown the flag for China’s games industry on the world stage, generating more revenue outside of China on the App Store and Google Play than at home.

In recent years, Lilith has been on the hunt for its next hit game to replicate its past successes. Those attempts include the visually impressive AFK Journey and recent new IP Clash of Critters – already one of the biggest titles in its portfolio right now. Can Lilith recapture the magic?

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• State of Survival
• Tiles Survive!
• Foundation: Galactic Frontier
• Aniimo

FunPlus has grown into one of China’s most successful game companies operating under a network of studios and offices spanning Asia, Europe, and North America. While its global HQ is based in Switzerland, Beijing remains the company’s largest hub.

The company is best known for its 4x strategy portfolio, led by State of Survival and King of Avalon, but the publisher has begun tapping IPs for new titles like Foundation: Galactic Frontier and DC: Dark Legion.

Its current top performer, given estimates, is Tiles Survive! – yet another 4X strategy winner in its portfolio – but its next big bet is cross-platform creature-catching RPG Aniimo.

Recently, FunPlus has been embracing AI. Speaking at PGC Barcelona, CBO Chris Petrovic stated that its ambition is to become “an AI-native games company”.

ASSOCIATED COMPANIES

Kingsglory

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• X-Clash
• Last Light
• Hero Clash
• X-Hero

When courting expert opinion on this list, one veteran industry executive described Bingchuan as a “robust and rapidly growing” company that represents the next wave of Chinese mobile publishers pushing aggressively overseas.

That’s high praise indeed. To global audiences, it first emerged with X-Hero. The title mixes casual with the idle RPG genre, currently showing off creatives for Vampire Survivors-esque gameplay. Previously, the title marketed itself with puzzles based around the doge meme. It’s a formula that’s worked across other games like Epic Heroes, Hero Clash and X-Clash, generating hundreds of millions of dollars.

While the blending of genres, such as for 4X strategy games, has become common for a number of Chinese publishers, Bingchuan Network’s implementation is particularly unique as it has racked up hundreds of millions of downloads. This might be one to keep an eye on.

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• Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
• Watcher of Realms
• Acecraft

Famously, the mantra goes that if you want to launch a mobile MOBA in the West, you are most likely destined to fail. There is a games graveyard filled with many attempts, including big IPs, that immediately fell away upon release.

Moonton bucked that trend with Mobile Legends, a true 5v5 MOBA adapted for mobile. Though much of its success can be found in Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, it’s also proven hugely popular in the US. Classically a rarity for the genre.

After picking up billions of dollars across markets and establishing a vibrant esports scene, the company has changed hands a couple of times. The studio was acquired by ByteDance in 2021 for a reported $4 billion. This year, Savvy Games Group purchased the developer in a deal that values it at $6bn, further establishing Moonton as one of China’s most high profile gaming exports.

ASSOCIATED COMPANIES

Savvy Games Group

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• Puzzles & Survival
• Last Asylum: Plague
• Puzzles & Chaos: Frozen Castle
• Trading Legend

37 Interactive Entertainment, also known by its publishing name 37Games, is one of a number of 4X strategy specialists in our list.

The company’s twist for flagship title Puzzles & Survival is that it successfully combines this with match-3 RPG mechanics – and other hypercasual gameplay – to create a multi-billion dollar success formula.

The publisher has a host of other hit games (SoulLand, Trading Legend, Ant Legion) and its latest promising mobile game is another 4X strategy title, Last Asylum: Plague. It adopts a different formula from Puzzles & Survival, with players charged with building and managing a sanctuary in a world ravaged by a mysterious plague. The title has already banked $50m and is currently the second most lucrative title based on monthly revenue in the company’s portfolio.

ASSOCIATED COMPANIES

37Games

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• Neverness to Everness
• Tower of Fantasy
• Person 5: The Phantom X
• Perfect World

Perfect World hasn’t had the easiest few years. Back in 2024 the company went through mass layoffs, leading to the resignation of the company’s CEO and co-CEO. The publisher was in need of a big success.

Perfect World’s portfolio spans original IPs, licensed adaptations, and cross-platform games. This year, it made its big bet: launching Hotta Studio’s urban open-world RPG Neverness to Everness, thereby entering a crowded field that has become a speciality of some of China’s top companies.

The title has delivered a strong commercial start, generating an estimated $42 million in gross revenue within its first two months, according to AppMagic. That’s a figure that doesn’t include console, PC, and third-party Android stores. So far, this big bet is paying off.

Beyond NTE, Perfect World published Persona 5: Phantom X in 2025, while it maintains its long-term live operations for Tower of Fantasy.

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• Arknights: Endfield
• Arknights
• Popucom

Known for vibrant anime-style games like Arknights and Ex Astris, Hypergryph and its global publishing brand Gryphline have been back in the spotlight this year thanks to what was one of mobile’s most hotly anticipated games in years: the new action RPG Arknights: Endfield. Years in the making, it’s among the biggest launches of 2026 and living up to the hype so far with over $100m in mobile earnings already.

Arknights: Endfield is being played across platforms and is making major waves in Japan especially. China has also proven itself an important, high-spending market. The game got off to a strong start despite PayPal payment issues on launch day, which the team was quick to respond to.

Headquartered in Shanghai, the company employs more than 1,500 people across Asia with offices also in Singapore, Japan, and Korea.

ASSOCIATED COMPANIES

Hypergryph

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• Top War: Battle GameTop Heroes: Kingdom Saga
• Last Z: Survival Shooter

River Game is one of China’s trailblazers in successfully merging hypercasual gameplay – such as those barrel shooting mechanics seen in many a mobile game ad – with 4X strategy tailored toward more core audiences.

Top War has adapted the formula to generate returns to the tune of more than $1.7bn in revenue across the App Store and Google Play to date. Meanwhile, River Game has followed that up with RPG strategy title Top Heroes: Kingdom Saga, itself picking up hundreds of millions of dollars.

You might be thinking that list is where things end. But we’re reliably informed that River Game operates under a few other names. One of those is Omnilojo, which has its own hit 4X strategy titles Last Z: Survival Shooter and Dark War Survival.

Combined, these make River Game one of the most successful genre publishers in the world.

ASSOCIATED COMPANIES

Omnilojo

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• Happy Match
• Ensemble Stars!! Music

Happy Elements is one of the premier names in China’s casual mobile gaming space. Chief among its successes is match-3 game Anipop, which, according to its own App Store page, was the “common choice of 800 million players” in 2025.

AppMagic estimates that since 2015, the title has generated close to $1.5 billion almost exclusively from China’s App Store. That figure doesn’t take into account revenue generated from the lucrative Android stores in China, meaning player spending is likely far higher.

Not just a success story in the match-3 space, Happy Elements also operates billion-dollar-plus hit Ensemble Stars!! Music, a rhythm game that features over 200 songs. Where Anipop has found most of its players in China, Ensemble Stars has proven particularly popular in Japan.

Other titles in Happy Elements’ portfolio include Silver Palace, Happy Fish, and Happy Holiday Match

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• Wuthering Waves

Kuro Games is best known as the developer and publisher behind cross-platform action RPG Wuthering Waves, which has quickly become the studio’s flagship title.

According to AppMagic estimates, Wuthering Waves generated $317.3m in mobile revenue in its first year and has since doubled that figure.

Ongoing regular content and expanding global engagement have helped the game maintain a consistent presence in charts since launch. These updates have proven to extend the game’s success, with collaborations that have included crossover events with Rovio’s Angry Birds, Capcom properties such as Resident Evil and Pragmata, and CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk universe.

With a strong commercial performance, frequent updates, and an expanding series of collaborations, Wuthering Waves has become Kuro Games’ defining release. Its success has attracted the overtures of Tencent, which acquired a majority stake in the studio in 2024.

ASSOCIATED COMPANIES

Tencent

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• Archero 2
• Dicero
• Survivor.io
• Capybara Go
• Archero

One of the most successful mobile game studios in recent years that has long flown the flag for the hybridcasual model is Habby. Technically headquartered in Singapore, it has a major operation in China. The publisher has built a strong reputation through its accessible games combining simple mechanics with long-term retention.

Habby’s portfolio spans major hits, such as titles like Archero and Survior.io, where it built its blueprint. The company has steadily come more prolific with games like Capybara Go, Wittle Defender, Dicero, and Archero 2.

According to AppMagic estimates, Archero 2 has generated approximately $258 million from gross player spending since its launch in early 2025, building on the foundations of one of mobile games’ most recognisable action roguelite franchises. And that’s a figure that doesn’t include ad revenue. Meanwhile, Dicero, described as a casual roguelite adventure based on the roll of a dice, has had a fine start to life after making $10m in just a couple of months post-launch.

While Habby is often associated with the hybridcasual genre, the company has increasingly positioned itself around longer-term retention and deeper progression systems.

Speaking to PocketGamer.biz at the ThinkingData Summit earlier this year, director of business development David Pan explained that Habby’s focus is less on the hybridcasual label itself and more on creating games that are capable of retaining players well beyond the first few weeks of play. That’s something that can be seen throughout the company’s portfolio, where live service support and player engagement have been key to its approach.

Outside of games themselves, Habby also demonstrates its business initiative through efforts such as its $2 million investment in Turkish developer Mavis Games.

From its genre-defining history with the likes of Archero to successes spanning Survior.io and Capybara Go, Habby continues to be a trailblazer.

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• Block Blast

What was the most downloaded mobile game worldwide in 2025 across the App Store and Google Play? Glad you asked. That title goes to Hungry Studio’s smash hit puzzle game Block Blast.

The block puzzle game is simple: players match colourful blocks on an 8x8 board while racking up combos and streaks. Some of the world’s most successful games have been built on the formula of simplicity, accessibility, replayability and a high skill ceiling.

AppMagic estimates it achieved 352m installs last year, following 225m in 2024 and 138m in 2023.

Oh, and so far in 2026, it’s the second most downloaded game worldwide behind Free Fire (just) with 131m installs. Yeah, it’s a popular game, with an estimated 850 million+ downloads over its lifetime.

According to Hungry Studio itself, Block Blast reached 70m daily active users and 300m monthly active users as of January 2026. Just in case you needed more evidence of how the title has played the world by storm.

Still not convinced? If you’re nosy, you might just even see others playing it when travelling abroad or on your local commute – it’s become that pervasive. The title briefly vanished from Google Play in May. Perhaps we’ll find out exactly what happened in the months ahead, but in the meantime, Block Blast has returned and remains as popular as ever.

Before you think Hungry Studio is a one-game studio, it has also launched other casual titles like Sudoku Blast, Double Tile, and Solitaire Master, each with millions of downloads. But none of them quite compare to the breakout success of Block Blast – another string in the bow of China’s casual gaming credentials.

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• Black Myth: Wukong

Game Science has the honour of developing an industry-defining game in Black Myth: Wukong. The action RPG takes its inspiration from Chinese mythology and is based on Wu Cheng’en’s classical novel, Journey to the West. It tells the story of the ‘Destined One’ as they venture across a variety of dazzling landscapes and fight an array of adversaries.

As countless industry analysts and media headlines will attest, the title’s release worldwide was a landmark moment for China’s games sector. It was proof that Chinese studios were capable of not only dominating on mobile or expanding around the world through key investments in major studios.

Black Myth: Wukong showed that big-budget triple-A games developed within China could now find blockbuster success on the world stage. To date, it’s reported to have sold some 30 million units worldwide – figures rival triple-A developers would be delighted to see, particularly as development costs continue to rise.

For all the talk of the game’s impact on the industry, there’s one quote from a five-star review by The Guardian that sums things up perfectly for the experience itself. “To look at Black Myth: Wukong purely through the lens of market sizes and tastes is a disservice that obscures the most critical fact of all: it’s a fantastic game.”

Game Science is following up Black Myth: Wukong with its next slated title and continuation of the franchise, Black Myth: Zhong Kui. Another action-RPG, this time the game is centered around the titular Zhong Kui, a deity in Chinese folklore.

One global blockbuster is a tough act to follow. If it can achieve another hit, it’ll further establish China’s worldwide triple-A credentials in building excellent games.

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• Love & Deepspace
• Infinity Nikki

Until 2024, Infold Games, the international publishing brand for developer Paper Games, was best known for the Nikki series. These days, it’s anyone’s game between Nikki and the hugely successful Love and Deepspace. With a predominantly female team, Love and Deepspace has curated an audience often untapped in the games landscape. Few titles are so directly designed with a female fanbase in mind.

The result: a large audience of otherwise-underserved players with money to spend.

The 500-person team has blended romance, sci-fi, photorealistic characters and dating adventures, resulting in what was 2024’s second most-lucrative new mobile release, only behind Dungeon & Fighter: Mobile in China. It bested Wuthering Waves, AFK Journey and even Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket in the year’s rankings, with around $400m generated in its first 12 months.

Fast-forward to 2026 and Love and Deepspace has made over $1bn in lifetime revenue. Its steady stream of updates continues to attract spending players with the latest dates, activities and outfits for a dashing cast of characters.

The title is now the most lucrative in Paper Games’ portfolio, even competing with Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail in the upper echelons of the monthly gacha scene. It’s exceeded the earnings of any single Nikki game.

Of course, the Nikki IP also rakes in millions of dollars and has even expanded beyond mobile with its latest entry – open-world cosy game Infinity Nikki. This title has made around $100m in its own right on mobile, offering a near-endless variety of outfits, as is a staple of the series. It’s also evolved the IP into so much more, with open-world gameplay, multiplayer and mini-games. The ways to play are now almost infinite.

Infold shows that China’s global successes span across genres and audiences.

ASSOCIATED COMPANIES

Paper Games

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• Genshin Impact
• Honkai: Star Rail
• Zenless Zone Zero

In the modern age of mobile games, HoYoverse – the international publishing brand of miHoYo – needs little introduction. This is the studio of breakout studios, the new monarch of gacha gaming and the open-world pioneer releasing hit after hit.

Whether it’s 2020’s Genshin Impact (a cross-platform titan with nearly $7bn in revenue on mobile alone) or urban RPG Zenless Zone Zero, HoYoverse is proving to have the master formula when it comes to big games and big spending.

Currently, the studio is hard at work on Petit Planet, which experimented with enhanced Starsea Voyage experiences and introduced new characters through the recent closed beta Stardrift Test. Taking a departure from the open-world formula of its predecessors, this game in HoYoverse’s portfolio has been described as a cosy, galactic life simulator.

Players can expect to fish, farm, cook and beachcomb as they spend time with fuzzy neighbours and friends. Whether it’s getting a coffee or dancing, hanging out with characters will also unlock changes to the landscape. Not just Petit Planet, HoYoverse is also working on a new entry in the Honkai series, creating collector Honkai: Nexus Anima.

Elsewhere, the developer’s flagship titles Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail continue to contend for the top spot in monthly gacha earnings. Genshin Impact may be the bigger brother, but that hasn’t stopped Honkai: Star Rail from expanding its presence this year – with characters appearing in battle royale behemoth Fortnite. Not a bad way to expand brand awareness, and just as Honkai: Star Rail launched its version 4.0 update, too.

And because that’s not enough to keep HoYoverse busy, the Chinese company also has a large-scale fantasy project in the works and is said to be investing up to ¥100bn ($14.7bn) on in-house AI over the next three years.

ASSOCIATED COMPANIES

miHoYo

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• Marvel Rivals
• Where Winds Meet
• Fantasy Westward Journey
• Eggy Party
• Once Human

You can’t compile a Top 30 China Game Makers list without including NetEase among its ranks.

The company is one of the largest games outfits in the world and remains a dominant force across both China and international markets. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, NetEase generated $3.7 billion in games and related services revenue, driven by strong performances across several of its flagship titles.

In China, games such as Eggy Party, Where Winds Meet and the company’s long-running Fantasy Westward Journey franchise continue to deliver.

Eggy Party has become one of the country’s biggest mobile successes, with AppMagic estimates placing gross player spending at around $879 million since launch. The title found a gap in the market with its party-game approach and has remained a major performer for the company since its 2022 release.

Other titles, such as Where Winds Meet, have emerged as one of NetEase’s more important recent releases, generating approximately $230 million in mobile player spending on the App Store and Google Play across China and international markets since its global release in late 2025, according to AppMagic estimates. The title is another example of how Chinese developers are taking the world by storm with large, triple-A games across platforms.

On one hand, NetEase has strengthened its position with Western audiences. Titles such as Marvel Rivals have become one of the company’s standout global titles, supported by a steady flow of updates that bring new characters and content to the free-to-play superhero title. Though with layoffs and a pullback from international investments, the company appears happier to now rely on home strengths for global expansion.

Few companies operate at the scale of NetEase and between its established franchise and emerging hits, it continues to grow both domestically and around the world, reinforcing its position as one of China’s most influential game makers.

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• Last War: Survival

Best known for 4X hit Last War: Survival, First Fun, also known as FunFly, combines hypercasual mechanics and strategic gameplay with moment-to-moment action that keeps players hooked.

In fact, it’s kept them so hooked, and so well monetised, that Last War: Survival landed the silver medal for mobile revenue of all games in 2025. Up almost 43% year-over-year, it rose from fourth place to second with nearly $2.4 billion in player spending on the App Store and Google Play alone – surpassing virtually every other mobile game on the market.

The title is currently third in 2026, with over $900m in the first half of the year alone. This brings player spending to approximately $5bn over Last War: Survival’s lifetime, dating back only to 2023.

While First Fun wasn’t the first company to think of gate-based multipliers or waves of enemies, the studio is undoubtedly at the vanguard of this format today.

It’s inspiring other big names to try their hand at 4X strategy too. The game’s success is particularly impressive when you consider that 4X was already seen as a hugely lucrative market for the leaders – and FirstFun has been key to taking the genre to another level entirely. It’s an example of the prowess of China’s games industry to find global success and identify growth opportunities. Even the likes of Monopoly Go, Royal Match, and Roblox can’t keep up with the mobile revenue being made here.

At the same time, it’s worth noting Last War: Survival is currently on a slight decline. It’s still exceeding $100m per month – a sum many studios would relish – but player spending has been seeing a small monthly fall since February. But the title is still one of the world’s biggest games, trailblazing the 4X genre globally as First Fun plays its part in cementing China’s place as an industry leader.

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• Honor of Kings
• PUBG Mobile
• Delta Force
• Valorant Mobile
• Honor of Kings: World

It’s impossible to make a top 30 China game makers list without Tencent ranked right near the top. After all, it’s the world’s largest games publisher and dominates the mobile top grossing rankings.

The company spans various areas, expanding its ecosystem across development, publishing, live services, and platforms. That scale was on full display at its Spark 2026 event, where it showcased 45+ titles spanning established franchises, updates, and new IP collaborations, giving a real sense of its massive scale.

At the core of its mobile dominance sits Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile, two titles that have defined much of Tencent’s reach. Honor of Kings still stands as one of the highest-grossing mobile games of all time, while PUBG Mobile remains one of the biggest shooters on the market.

Tencent has continued to expand the shooter genre through Delta Force, developed by Team Jade, approaching $1 billion at the time of writing across the App Store and Google Play. Not content with success so far, the studio is now reportedly planning to expand the game with user-generated content features.

Esports and competitive gaming also remain areas where Tencent is heavily active, with Honor of Kings confirmed as one of the titles for the Esports World Cup and Delta Force launching competitive qualifiers.

Beyond traditional games, Tencent also operates one of the world’s largest games distribution ecosystems through WeChat and mini-games, which surpassed 500 million active users in 2025.

Outside of its core portfolio, Tencent has shown its power and influence across its investments and acquisitions, owning companies such as Riot Games and Supercell, supporting its position as one of the most powerful companies in the games space and beyond.

ASSOCIATED COMPANIES

Riot Games

TiMi Studio Group

Lightspeed Studios

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• Gossip Harbor
• Seaside Escape
• Flambé: Merge and Cook

A close second on this year’s Top 30 China Game Makers list, Microfun has been one of the fastest growing games companies in the world over the last few years.

Its success has been driven by the merge genre, and specifically Gossip Harbor, which has accumulated over $2 billion in just a few short years. Meanwhile, Seaside Escape, another merge game that also adopts the classic formula of combining the gameplay with a strong narrative to follow and renovation mechanics, has itself made hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet another merge game, Flambé: Merge and Cook, has also steadily scaled into a hit.

What’s particularly impressive, and a theme of some of the top companies in this list, is how it has entered a genre with established leaders – like the Supercell-backed Metacore with Merge Mansion – and quickly left the competition behind. It’s been a key player in expanding the merge market far beyond its previous highs – and in its wake have emerged other China-based competitors including Happibits and Learnings.

China’s games industry isn’t just dominating in single categories, it’s become a hub for major global publishers across genres – with Microfun establishing its credentials as an expert in the casual field.

The publisher has found a formula it can rinse and repeat, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if it can capture the magic again, given its proven expertise in scaling hits at a rapid pace. The question for the rest of the mobile market is: how can they compete on this level?

SOFTOGRAPHY

• Kingshot
• Whiteout Survival
• Tasty Travels
• Truck Star

Hot off being named the number one games company in the world in our annual Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2025 list, Century Games is a natural fit for topping this list of Chinese developers and publishers, too.

It wasn’t a slam dunk. If you’ve read through this list – or even just have knowledge of the powerhouse companies in China’s games industry – you’ll have seen a wide array of big names and runaway success stories. But Century Games encapsulates all of our criteria. It’s hugely successful, it’s innovated and grown the 4X genre through multiple ventures, while, perhaps most importantly for this list, it’s become a global name.

China’s games sector has moved on from its own lucrative market to dominating entire categories around the world, across platforms. On mobile, Century now ranks as the number two mobile games publisher on the App Store and Google Play. Given the global competition, including the likes of Scopely, Dream Games, Playrix, and Zynga, that’s some feat.

So how did it do it? Century has been around for years, but in February 2023 the company stepped things up a gear with 4X strategy game Whiteout Survival. It has quickly become one of the top names in the genre, banking an estimated $4.9 billion in gross revenue, according to AppMagic.

Far from a one-trick pony (and not including other past successes), Century has found success once again in the 4X category with Kingshot – which stands on its own, rather than simply a reskin of the successful formula. Century has even expanded its casual gaming ambitions, scaling merge game Tasty Travels to the number two grossing title in the genre so far in 2026. It’s even bringing in millions with match-3 entrant Truck Star.

Century encapsulates China’s gaming story, becoming a global star and one of the leaders in the country’s push for industry dominance.