Photos: VCG

"I started playing the game in its first season and now its season 11. My dream is to represent India one day in the world competition for PUBG MOBILE," Akash, a 26-year-old player from Mumbai, India, told the Global Times.

Akash is not alone. In recent years, a lot of domestic game developers have put their focus on the overseas market where they have seen a good harvest both in terms of word-of-mouth and rising revenue. The global mobile game market, once monopolized by the foreign products, is now embracing a Chinese trend.

Global App Store and Google Play rankings in December 2019 suggested Chinese mobile game publishers Tencent, NetEase and Lilith were the top three, according to a report by Sensor Tower, a mobile app data analysis platform. This trend showed the best results so far for the domestic mobile game developers.

Developed by Lightspeed & Quantum Studios of Tencent Games, PUBG MOBILE has been operated in more than 200 countries and regions and has received more than 600 million downloads outside Chinese mainland, as announced in November 2019. 

Reaching the world

Behind the strong growth of mobile game in overseas markets is the increasing saturation of the domestic market and the increasing demand for premium mobile game products abroad.

In recent years, the growth rate of mobile game users in China has significantly dropped. With the fixed population space in China, the number of game users using mobile devices was basically saturated, with a growth rate of 3.2 percent in 2019 compared with the same period in 2018, according to a report by China Audio-video and Publishing Association in December 2019.

The relevant domestic policies are gradually becoming standardized, with the publishing policies on the launch of measures such as anti-addiction system and youth restrictions further expected to increase the threshold of domestic products. This may also lead to intensified competition abroad, a staff member from China Mobile Games and Entertainment Group said.

"The growth rate of overseas users is higher than that of domestic mobile phone users, so overseas expansion is the most important strategic significance that we pay close attention to now," Lu Xiaoyin, president of Perfect World, told the Global Times.

In addition, the increase in revenue in the global market is also an important reason driving the domestic game developers abroad.

In the first half of 2019, the growth rate of Chinese self-developed games' overseas revenue reached 23.8 percent, higher than the 10.8 percent growth rate of the domestic market, according to data on chyxx.com in October 2019.

Building IPs

Riding on the wave of this global trend, the Chinese mobile game producers have shown a clear market orientation in their products design that helps them capture the hearts of overseas players.

For example, NetEase's mobile shooter Knives Out has created a national phenomenon of popularity and good word-of-mouth in the Japanese market. The game has been downloaded more than 30 million times in Japan.

Industrial analysts believe the game's success in Japan is due to its grasp of the country's animation culture.

According to Niko Partners, in India alone, PUBG MOBILE has been downloaded more than 100 million times. The game had the highest downloads and revenues in India in September 2019.

For the overseas game products of Tencent Games, they add either unique cultural elements, such as Arena of Valor, or localize it based on the uniqueness of overseas markets to make it more immersive and interesting.

Akash described the game as his "second heart." He spent about five to six hours on average per day on that game. The game's anti-addiction system limits the maximum amount of gaming hours at six per day.

"Unlike other mobile games, this game allows me to relieve the stress and tension in my daily life, and to play this creative game with high freedom also requires a lot of skills and thinking," he said.

According to the data from App Annie, Tencent's mobile game is already the highest mobile game in terms of monthly active users.

"We attribute such a result to the project team's deep understanding and control of the game's core IP as well as the good balances on the user habits, cultural differences and market demand in various countries and regions," said a spokesperson from Tencent Games.

Challenges existed

Although the current path of current Chinese mobile games overseas is going smoothly, industry insiders believe knowing how to continue expanding the vitality of mobile games is still key to stay competitive in the future.

Xiang Ligang, chairman of China Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times Chinese culture may be popular among some foreigners, but for overseas markets, a localized IP is still decisive in the success of a game.

"Games about the Three Kingdoms, for example, are more popular in Japan and South Korea than in the US because of the cultural and historical connections," Xiang said.

Meanwhile, Xiang said that the peripheral derivatives can also effectively extend the life expectancy of a mobile game product. "To continue the life cycle of a game and make it commercially viable, producers need to develop more of its derivatives like relevant toys or even movies," he said.

In addition, seeking international partners and ideas also keeps a product fresh.

According to a statement from NetEase to the Global Times, the company will continue to help overseas studios with strong creativity to better realize their potential.