Guangdong’s Gaming Industry 2025 Review: A Global Market “Ballast” and a New Engine for “Cultural Export”

“2025 Guangdong Game Industry Development Report” Released: Industry Revenue Accounts for Over 80% of National Total, Overseas Expansion Emerges as New Engine for “Cultural Export”

At the recently held “Ascend Step by Step · Create the Future in Guangdong” 2025 Guangdong Game Industry Annual Conference and “Golden Diamond Awards Ceremony” in Guangzhou, Lu Xiaokun, Executive President of the Guangdong Game Industry Association, officially released the 2025 Guangdong Game Industry Development Report. The report indicates that the estimated revenue of Guangdong’s game industry in 2025 reached 283.613 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.90%, accounting for 80.85% of the national total game industry revenue. This marks a rebound above 80% after last year’s 79.97%, further consolidating its role as the “ballast stone” of the national game industry.

Mobile Games Break Through 200 Billion Mark for the First Time, Overseas Revenue Grows Steadily

The report notes that mobile games are the cornerstone of the continuous growth of Guangdong’s game industry. In 2025, revenue from mobile games in Guangdong surpassed the 200 billion yuan mark for the first time, reaching 211.632 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.55%. Regarding overseas expansion, the estimated overseas revenue for Guangdong’s games in 2025 was 46.427 billion yuan, a 9.60% increase year-on-year. Looking back over the past decade, the overall revenue of Guangdong’s game industry grew from 93.45 billion yuan in 2015 to 260.431 billion yuan in 2024, nearly tripling in ten years, demonstrating robust and resilient development.

“Six Major Trends” Lead High-Quality Industry Development

At the annual conference, President Lu Xiaokun pointed out that Guangdong’s game industry is exhibiting six major development trends: policy guidance, technological empowerment, industrial synergy, breakthroughs in global product strength, shifts in social perception, and consumption driven by emotional identification. She particularly emphasized that the “policy package” released by Guangdong Province in May 2025 to promote the high-quality development of the cultural industry, focusing on supporting original quality content and technological innovation, and the establishment of service centers in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, have significantly improved government service efficiency, injecting new policy momentum into industrial development.

Improved Overseas Expansion Matrix, Alliance Promotes Industrial Synergy

Guangdong’s game export efforts are not only substantial in scale but also feature a healthy echelon structure. In 2024, eight Guangdong-based companies achieved overseas revenues exceeding 10 billion yuan, forming a complete matrix led by giants like Tencent and NetEase, and followed by emerging forces such as Kuro Games and Lingxi Games. Several Guangdong enterprises have been selected as “2025-2026 National Key Cultural Export Enterprises.” To further systematically enhance competitiveness, the “Guangdong Game Export Alliance” was officially established in June 2025, aiming to integrate resources across the entire chain including R&D, finance, taxation, and channels, promoting the evolution of overseas expansion from “individual enterprise efforts” to “industrial corps collaboration.”

“Gaming+” Ecological Radiation Drives Multi-sector Overseas Expansion

The overseas expansion effect of Guangdong’s game industry has transcended a single sector, forming an ecological overseas expansion model characterized by “one core leading, multiple sectors collaborating.”

Industrial Chain Collaboration: Centered on game R&D, it drives the entire chain of enterprises—including upstream art and sound effect outsourcing, midstream publishing and operations, and downstream IP derivative development—to go international together.

Globalization of IP Derivatives: Leveraging mature supply chains in places like the “Capital of Trendy Toys” Dongguan, derivative products of Guangdong game IPs are sold worldwide. Over 4,000 toy manufacturing enterprises in the province undertake nearly a quarter of global anime derivative production, transforming cultural symbols into tangible commodities.

Building Bridges for Cultural Export: The channels and user base accumulated through game exports provide pathways for other cultural products to go overseas. For example, Tencent’s series like Joy of Life have accessed overseas platforms through gaming channels, and the experience from game exports also offers lessons for the “new cultural trio”—online literature and micro-dramas.

Core Competitiveness: Dual Drivers of Cultural Core and Technological Empowerment

The success of Guangdong games in the global market lies in the fusion of cultural value and commercial value.

Cultural Infusion into Content: Companies excel at integrating excellent traditional Chinese culture and Lingnan characteristics (such as lion dance, Guangcai porcelain, etc.) into their products. 37 Interactive Entertainment’s Call Me Big Boss, based on Along the River During the Qingming Festival, launched versions themed around the “Maritime Silk Road,” reaching over 360 million overseas users cumulatively.

Technology Enhances Experience and Efficiency: Continuous investment in areas such as game engines, AI, and ultra-high-definition rendering. For instance, Tencent’s self-developed AI technology improves scene production efficiency by tens of times, breaking cultural dissemination barriers with top-tier industrialization and audiovisual quality.

Regional DNA Empowers Global Operations: The international perspective and cross-border experience accumulated by Guangdong as the forefront of reform and opening up provide unique advantages for enterprises to accurately grasp global market demands.

Benchmark Case: 37 Interactive Entertainment’s Overseas Revenue Grows Nearly 15-Fold in a Decade

37 Interactive Entertainment is a typical representative of Guangdong’s game export efforts. Its overseas revenue grew from 356 million yuan in 2015 to 5.722 billion yuan in 2024, a nearly 15-fold increase over the decade. In the first half of 2025, its overseas revenue reached 2.724 billion yuan, steadily ranking among the top Chinese mobile game publishers in overseas revenue. By building a multi-category product matrix and adhering to strategies of “quality-first” and “cultural integration,” the company has established brand influence in over 200 countries and regions worldwide.

Outlook: Value Dimensional Ascension from “Product Export” to “Ecosystem Export”

Currently, Guangdong’s game industry is undergoing a profound dimensional ascension—from “product export” to “ecosystem export,” and from pursuing “commercial success” to facilitating “cultural dissemination.” It is not only a significant economic pillar but has also become an innovative vehicle for systematically exporting Chinese culture, lifestyle, and values in the digital era. Under the coordination of the “Guangdong Game Export Alliance,”凭借 its deep industrial foundation, innovative cultural expression, and leading technological strength, Guangdong’s game industry is poised to play an even more critical role in the global digital content landscape, continuing to validate the industrial reality that “the world looks to China for gaming, and China looks to Guangdong.”