Guangdong game development is expected to accelerate again in 2025

Guangdong Press and Publication Bureau said in the activity of “Games Going to Sea to Lead the Trend”-Game Industry Development and Innovation Trend that Guangdong is closely relying on the key opportunity of the action plan of “Millions of Talents Getting to South Guangdong”, and releasing three favorable policies: focusing on the filing of small program games, the new application of “AI + games”, and the supporting policies of games going to sea, aiming at fully promoting the high-quality development of the game industry, consolidating the national leading edge and accelerating the layout of the global market. Through policies such as the “Action Plan for Cultivating Digital Creativity Strategic Emerging Industry Clusters”, we will promote the improvement of the industrial chain, aim to add more than 10 listed game companies, and create internationally renowned exhibitions and top e-sports events. At the same time, the online publishing technology innovation leading plan provides policy guarantee for industry technology innovation.

One is to promote the focus of the game platform. Grasp the new trend of sustained and rapid growth of the mini-program game industry, consolidate the first-Mover advantage, further optimize the mini-program game filing process, improve filing efficiency, attract more domestic leading platforms to settle in Guangdong with efficient and high-quality services, and attract more small and medium-sized micro developers to develop in Guangdong to ensure that Guangdong continues to lead the development of the mini-program game industry.

The second is to serve new applications and new scenarios of games. Start the registration measures of game applications adapted to artificial intelligence ecosystems such as smart driving and AI glasses, guide game companies to cooperate with new energy vehicle OEMs, smart cockpit companies, and AI glasses companies, expand new formats and scenarios of online games, and allow games to achieve deep integration with artificial intelligence applications such as smart driving and AI glasses. At the same time, we strongly support the ecological layout of domestic operating systems represented by Huawei Hongmeng in the game field.

The third is to strongly support games going overseas. Guide Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places where the game industry is concentrated to introduce supporting policies to provide “green channel” services for game companies focusing on overseas business in terms of publishing review and operation filing, so that relevant companies have no worries, strengthen their confidence in overseas development, and further expand Be bigger and stronger overseas business.

 At present, among the key regional distribution of listed game companies, there are 27 game companies listed in Guangdong (including the New Third Board), ranking first in the country in terms of number, including 13 in Hong Kong stocks, 9 in A-shares, 2 in US stocks, and 3 in the New Third Board.

From the perspective of all ends of the game, the growth rate of online game revenue in Guangdong Province is also quite obvious. In terms of mobile games, Guangdong Province’s mobile game revenue in 2024 is expected to be 196.782 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%, accounting for 82.61% of the national mobile game revenue. The proportion is still increasing, accounting for more than 80% in the past three years.

In 2024, Guangdong’s client game revenue will reach 60.16 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.4%, accounting for 88.5% of the national client game revenue and 23.1% of Guangdong’s game revenue. In addition, in 2024, other (including console) game revenue will be 1.406 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.81%.

In terms of mini-games, Guangdong’s mini-program game revenue will reach 26.292 billion yuan in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 119.1%, accounting for 66% of the national mini-program game revenue. Mini-games are one of the most important growth points of the domestic game industry in recent years, and the revenue of mini-program games in Guangdong has entered the fast lane of growth. The growth rate is greater than the overall trend of the country, and the proportion of national mini-program game revenue has also increased.

Judging from the age distribution of small game players provided by WeChat platform, most small game product players in Guangdong are between 19 and 29 years old, accounting for 53%. The proportion is between 30 and 39 years old, and the proportion is over 40 years old, accounting for 37%.

In the TOP30 best-selling mini-games list, there are 7 mini-games in Guangdong, of which 5 games in Shenzhen are on the list. Sanqi Mutual Entertainment’s “Seeking the Way and Daqian”, Dameng Longtu’s “Fire at Zombies”, and Benefiting the World’s “This City Has Fertile Land” are all on the list.

On the enterprise side, among the key regional distribution of mini-game developers on the WeChat platform, Guangdong accounted for 14.73%, followed by Hunan, Sichuan, and Fujian, accounting for 7.02%, 6.87%, and 6.18% respectively.

In 2024, the revenue of Guangdong’s game industry will reach 260.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 6%, accounting for nearly 80% of the national market share, ranking first in the country. With the favorable support of the three major policies, the development of games in Guangdong is expected to accelerate again in 2025.