In 2025, China’s game industry will frequently introduce favorable policies

In 2025, China’s game industry witnessed a series of favorable policies. The year marked a period of intensive policy benefits for the game industry, with both the central and local governments launching multiple supportive measures covering the entire industry chain, including game development, overseas expansion, e-sports events, and technological innovation.

In February, Shanghai issued the “Notice on Relevant Policies for the Management of Online Games in the City”, establishing the “Shanghai Online Game Publishing Declaration Service Platform” and simplifying the filing process for mini-game applications.

In March, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council released the “Special Action Plan for Boosting Consumption”, explicitly including the game industry in the scope of policy support. It proposed to “promote consumption of animation, games, e-sports and their peripheral derivatives”, and encouraged the integration of excellent traditional Chinese culture into game design to promote the development of original IPs.

Immediately following, the Guangdong Provincial Press and Publication Bureau took the lead in releasing three policy benefits. Among them, the measure of “optimizing the filing process for mini-game applications” directly benefited tens of thousands of mini-game creators.

Two months later, Guangdong issued the “Several Measures for Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Online Game Industry in Guangdong”, announcing rewards of up to 5 million yuan for original high-quality and technological innovation projects, and setting up game enterprise service centers in Guangzhou and Shenzhen to vigorously promote the development of local mini-game businesses.

In April, the State Council approved the “Plan for Accelerating the Comprehensive Pilot Program for Expanding the Opening-up of the Service Industry”, supporting the overseas expansion of the game industry, laying out the entire industrial chain from IP creation to overseas operation, and exploring innovative mechanisms such as facilitating cross-border settlements.

In June, Beijing released the “Support Measures for Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Game and E-sports Industry in Beijing (Interim)”, proposing 11 measures, including:

– Shortening the review period: Reducing the copyright registration of game materials from 22 working days to 10 working days.
– AI technology support: Supporting game enterprises in adopting large models and upgrading computing power, with a maximum reward of 30 million yuan.
– E-sports event incentives: Offering a maximum reward of 5 million yuan for international-level events and 500,000 yuan for local brand events.
– Overseas expansion support: Offering a maximum reward of 5 million yuan to enterprises with outstanding performance in overseas markets.

In June, Zhejiang also released the “Several Measures for Supporting the Overseas Expansion of the Game Industry”, which was the first systematic policy for game overseas expansion in the country. The policy proposed 20 detailed measures, including:

– Optimizing the approval process: Implementing a “unified declaration, online review” model to enhance the efficiency of version number approval.
– Strengthening intellectual property protection: Promoting a pre-expansion infringement risk screening mechanism to reduce legal risks.
– Coordinated overseas expansion of software and hardware: Promoting the integration of games with AR/VR devices to expand the international market.

This year, the approval of game licenses has become regularized: from January to April 2025, a total of 654 licenses were issued, representing a year-on-year growth of 14.7%, and the vitality of the supply side has been enhanced. China’s four major cities (Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Chengdu) have also made it into the top ten of the global e-sports city influence list. Favorable policies have driven the game ETF (516010) to rise by more than 3% in a single day, with strong performances from individual stocks such as Kaisen Network and Shenzhou Taiyue. In the first quarter of 2025, the scale of China’s game market reached 85.7 billion yuan, growing by 17.99% year-on-year, with the overseas market becoming a new growth point.

In addition, the small game industry in China has undergone structural changes in 2025, presenting the following six core features:
1. Technological paradigm reconstruction: AIGC drives industrialized production
– Development efficiency leaps: Through AI generation tools (such as Tencent’s GiiNEX and NetEase’s Fuxi), the development cycle of small games has been compressed from three months to seven days, and the efficiency of generating art materials has increased by 400%.
– Intelligent operation becomes standard: 80% of top products have integrated large model customer service systems, and user retention analysis can respond within minutes.
– UGC ecosystem explodes: The “AI Creation Workshop” on the WeChat small game platform generates over 200 games daily, with individual developers accounting for 35%.

1. Diversified Distribution Channels

III. Evolution of Business Models
• Hybrid Monetization 3.0:

IAP share rises to 45% (vs. 28% in 2023)

Combined reward ads & subscriptions drive 170% ARPU growth

• Branded Games:

Conversion rate reaches 11.7% for custom games (e.g. Mixue Bingcheng)

• Digital Asset Trading:

NetEase’s “Eggy Party” UGC map transactions exceed ¥500M

1. Policy-Driven Opportunities
   • Fast-track approval: Casual game licensing shortened to 5 working days
   • AI creation incentives: Hangzhou offers ¥100K subsidy per AIGC mini game
   • Overseas tax benefits: Shenzhen Qianhai cuts corporate tax to 15%
2. User Behavior Shifts
   • Silver economy: 45+ users account for 29%, puzzle game playtime up 300%
   • Micro-social: LBS “game+social” models boost sharing rate to 25%
   • Contextual penetration: Food delivery wait-time gameplay opens 8X vs 2023
3. Competitive Landscape Transformation
   • Market consolidation: Tencent/NetEase/ByteDance hold 68% share
   • Niche leaders:

Female-oriented “Project: Love & Baker” hits 8M DAU

Simulation “Tiny Night Market” earns $20M monthly overseas
• Traditional adaption: Perfect World establishes “Lightning Studio” with 15-day dev cycles

Future Outlook:
With Web3.0 infrastructure maturing, China may see its first blockchain-based mini game platforms by late 2025, enabling cross-platform digital asset circulation. The industry is evolving from “traffic play” to “content ecosystem,” becoming gateway applications for the metaverse.

2025 marks China’s gaming policy dividend era, with national-to-local support systems covering R&D subsidies, global expansion incentives, and esports empowerment. AI technology, esports ecosystems, and globalization will be key growth drivers.