Top grossing mobile games in China 2024

China's mobile game market is vibrant. In September 2024, Tencent's Dungeon & Fighter: Origins ranked the second-grossing game app in the country, earning almost 75 million U.S. dollars in revenue. The first placeholder Honor of Kings from Tencent was far beyond the second. The much anticipated PUBG Mobile stood at the third spot with nearly 68 million U.S. dollars.

The long-term winners: Tencent and NetEase

For many years, Tencent and NetEase have been the most successful Chinese game developers, holding the lion’s share of mobile gaming revenue. The former owns the super app WeChat and an extensive network of entertainment offerings. The mobile gaming business has been one of the profit pillars of Tencent, contributing nearly 30 percent of its annual revenue (555 billion yuan) in 2022. In comparison, NetEase was half the size of Tencent - 75 billion yuan in online game revenue in 2022.

The industry challenger: miHoYo

Having arrived at the gaming scene relatively late in 2011, the Chinese studio miHoYo took eight years to catch global attention. In September 2020, the company grabbed the right timing to launch Genshin Impact during the pandemic. The role-playing game achieved two billion U.S. dollars of revenue within a year of release and continues to be a lucrative title in various markets. The company announced another blockbuster game Honkai: Star Rail in April 2023.