📈 The Rise of Chinese Gaming in 2024 isn't Just Wukong!
📈 The Rise of Chinese Gaming in 2024 isn't Just Wukong!
AppMagic's Andrei Zubhov breaks down the top new games and expansions in China for 2024
Hey GameMakers,
This is a late newsletter this week, as I just returned from a secret event in Mumbai that hosted some of India’s most famous, wealthy, and accomplished people. Oh, and I was there, too, lol.
Mumbai, aka Bombay, is an incredible city with an energy distinctly different from Bangalore, where our studio operates. Bangalore is the city of tech, business, and entrepreneurship, while Mumbai is about hope and achieving one's dreams.
So, in Mumbai, the city of dreams, I was delighted to meet many inspiring people from India for whom their dreams have come true.
My dreams… have not come true just yet. So Mumbai was a good city for me to visit! Lol.
Anyway, I’m back now, and it’s back to the grind!
In this newsletter:
Top Revenue: Dungeon & Fighter: Origin reclaims the #1 worldwide spot!
Top Downloads: The #1 creator platform, Roblox, is the #1 worldwide leader for a second consecutive week.
Top Steam Revenue: Black Myth Wukong maintains its death grip on #1.
Highlight—New Chinese Games in 2024: We review AppMagic’s analysis of the top Chinese games in 2024.
Top 10 Mobile Charts (Worldwide, US, and China)
DNF Origins tops Honor of Kings for #1 Worldwide, and the battle for #1 continues to go back and forth.
At #5 Worldwide, Century’s Whiteout Survival finally tops Last War: Survival, which falls to #10.
Dang, how did Dragon Ball Z jump so high to achieve #9 Worldwide?
Roblox dominates downloads!
Also note that Roblox and Offline Games: No Wifi Games at #2 Worldwide represent game platforms, not specific games.
At #6 China, 天启行动 (aka Operation Apocalypse) seems like it’s Netease’s version of Valorant for mobile.
Top 10 Steam Charts
Nothing is surprising about Black Myth: Wukong sticking at #1.
Gundam Breaker 4 continues Bandai Namco’s Gundam Breaker series focused on the Gundam universe. It’s an action hack-and-slash game with a strong focus on customization and mech combat.
🇨🇳 The Rise of New Chinese Games in 2024!
Andrei Zubov from AppMagic recently shared a post on new Chinese gaming titles in 2024, which I’d like to share with you today. His main argument is that new Chinese games, in addition to Black Myth Wukong, have done exceptionally well!
I’ve posted some of his infographics along with my commentary below.
Although most people are now aware of Game Science’s massive success in Black Myth Wukong, China’s other top games, which were recently launched or expanded in 2024, should also be appreciated: AFK Journey, Honor of Kings, ZZZ, and, of course, Dungeon & Fighter: Origin.
Lilith Games has launched six other titles, achieving over $100M in life-of-product revenue, including Rise of Kingdoms, AFK Arena, Warpath, Art of Conquest, Call of Dragons, and Dislyte.
As Andrei highlighted above, AFK Journey is the latest addition in 2024.
While Honor of Kings launched in 2015, Tencent did not expand the game globally outside of China until this year. According to AppMagic estimates, the game has generated over $12B in net revenue and over 350M downloads, not including alternative app store revenue in China.
While mobile MOBAs are generally less popular in Western markets, we’ll see how well the game translates globally. I suspect generating substantial revenue outside of China will be challenging, but let’s see how things go.
Who hasn’t known miHoYo since the launch of Genshin Impact? While Genshin has reportedly generated over $4.3B in net revenue, Honkai: Star Rail is also a blockbuster game, having generated over $1.1B in net revenue since its launch in April 2023.
ZZZ seems to have experienced a severe decline in revenue and downloads since its launch in June earlier this year. However, don’t count the game out! miHoYo has some of the most talented game developers in the world who will continue to work on the game.
Everyone should know this game. Dungeon & Fighter: Origin is hands-down the most successful game in terms of revenue ever launched.
Dungeon & Fighter, however, is not quite an overnight success.
Most people don’t know that Dungeon & Fighter is a brand that has been around for almost twenty years. The original Dungeon & Fighter game was developed by Neople, a subsidiary of Nexon, and launched in 2005 as an arcade-style beat-em-up with MMORPG elements.
China loves Dungeon & Fighter, and the Tencent mobile adaptation has been a runaway success, eclipsing (for a time) the revenue of Honor of Kings.
Chinese IP Integrations
China loves big IP, especially the big Chinese players like Tencent and Netease.
In addition to big new hits, watch out for big IP integrations with Chinese games such as this Tomb Raider integration in Netease’s Naraka Bladepoint: