A total of 1,306 domestic games and 110 foreign titles were approved in 2024, up from 977 local titles and 98 imported ones last year.
China approved 122 domestic and 13 foreign video games in December, bringing the total number of licensed titles to more than 1,400 this year, the highest since 2019.
On Tuesday, the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA), the agency responsible for licensing video games in China, announced the list of approved domestic titles for the month, which included NetEase’s open-world role-playing game Ananta.
Imported titles that were approved in the same batch included Uncharted Waters: Legend operated by Suzhou Yinghuo Information Technology under Alibaba Group Holding’s Lingxi Games, and Red Alert: Glory from Tencent Holdings-backed Shanghai Yorha Technology. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
The regulatory environment for the gaming industry has significantly improved in recent years, following a crackdown in 2021 that resulted in an eight month hiatus in the granting of licences. The Chinese government also implemented strict rules on gamers under the age of 18, who can only play between 8pm and 9pm on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays.
In 2024, a total of 1,306 domestic games and 110 foreign titles were approved, an increase from last year’s 977 local titles and 98 imported ones, and significantly up from 2022’s 468 and 44, respectively.
In 2019, more than 1,500 local and foreign games were approved after a freeze on approvals in 2018 due to government restructuring. Nevertheless, there were more than 2,000 games licensed in 2018.
The past year also saw China’s first AAA video game, Black Myth: Wukong, which was launched in August and sold 10 million copies in less than four days. At The Games Awards held earlier this month in Los Angeles, the title won the Best Action Game and the Players’ Voice awards.
Sales in the world’s second-largest video gaming market rose 7.5 per cent year on year in 2024 to 325.8 billion yuan (US$44.6 billion), while the number of players edged up 1 per cent to 674 million, according to a recent report by the Gaming Publishing Committee of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association.
This year, Chinese game developers made US$18.6 billion from the overseas market, an increase of 13.4 per cent from 2023, the report showed.
Source: SCMP
