Niko Partners: Chinese Gaming Market in 2025
Analysts are confident in market's stable growth over the years.
Market Figures
By the end of 2024, the market size reached $49.2 billion. This is 3.6% higher than last year.
Niko Partners expects that by the end of 2025, the market will grow to $50.7 billion. By 2029, it is projected to reach $54.8 billion with a CAGR of 2.2%.
At the end of 2024, there were 722 million players in the country — twice the population of the US. This number will grow to 753.7 million by 2029 (CAGR – 0.9%).
ARPU of Chinese players at the end of 2024 is $68. By 2029, this figure will rise to $73.
Growth will be driven by mobile and PC segments. A strong contribution is expected from Nintendo Switch 2, the launch of next-gen consoles, the rise of premium PC games, and the increasing popularity of Mini Games.
Xsolla recently released the global gaming market map, which covers more than 200 regions.
This is a gigantic work, each market has:
Main market numbers (population, gaming revenue, distribution of revenue by platform and much more).
Top video game genres.
Recommendations for game localization.
Largest game development studios & games from the region.
Cultural considerations & local holidays.
Top streaming platforms, influencers, local shows.
Salary benchmarks for the gaming industry.
Payment data, taxes information, and legal considerations.
So far, it is the most comprehensive database of the gaming market I’ve seen so far (excluding my newsletter, of course, ha-ha).
200+ countries covered, and there is a very sweet opportunity to download the data for the pitch in the .pdf format (based on the market).
Player Survey
This section contains results from a survey of 1,058 Chinese players.
Chinese players are interested in generative AI. 85.2% are familiar with this technology, and 39.4% are curious about its applications in games. According to Niko Partners, more than 60% of Chinese developers use generative AI in their projects.
Mini Games in China keep growing. 84.4% play them. 17.7% of women play mini-games daily, compared to 10.3% of men. Currently, this segment generates about 10% of total gaming revenue.
41% of users in China discover new games through short video platforms, 38.7% follow platform recommendations, and 33.9% get information from social media.
46.5% of players in China engage with esports in some way. Every fourth player in China actively watches influencers.
11 of the top 20 games in Chinese streaming platforms are either released by overseas developers or based on major IPs. Niko Partners also highlights the popularity of games that have not been officially released in the market (for example, Apex Legends).