The China Mobile Game market has entered a mature development phase, maintaining an annual market size above RMB 200 billion and accounting for approximately three-quarters of the domestic gaming industry. Driven by new releases and long-term titles, the sector's actual sales revenue grew over 7% year-on-year in 2025, achieving another annual record high.
User demographics have shifted, with younger players remaining dominant while middle-aged and elderly gamers saw increased representation—partly due to the rise of mini-program games. Gender distribution shows male users slightly outnumbering females at 52%, though the gap is narrowing as female-oriented games gain traction.
Marketing trends reveal a notable decline in sales expense ratios among major listed gaming firms, averaging 21.8% in H1 2025—a 2.9 percentage point drop YoY, marking the first significant decrease in five years. This shift stems from prioritizing depth-oriented marketing metrics, which strengthened the link between promotional spending and revenue generation. Among companies that reduced sales expenses, 63% reported higher total revenue, while 77.8% saw increased net profit—demonstrating improved efficiency.
Performance marketing and content marketing emerged as dual pillars for mobile game promotion. While performance marketing (e.g., user acquisition) is transitioning from quantity to quality—with ad spend increasingly concentrated on premium creatives—content marketing’s cost efficiency has spurred rapid adoption, now exceeding 2 million monthly content pieces.
A key 2025 trend involves "depth marketing objectives," where app game advertisers reduced ad volumes by 20% YoY while increasing spend—redirecting budgets toward high-quality creatives. The gaming sector faced intensified cross-industry competition for ad space, with its share dropping 7 percentage points to 12.8% in H1 due to short-video platforms and other rivals.
Mini-program games flourished via diversified distribution channels, though Tencent’s ecosystem (led by WeChat) retained dominance with 87.6% user preference. While ad-supported (IAA) games comprised 81.9% of active titles, in-app purchase (IAP) and hybrid-monetization games captured over 80% of total ad spend—underscoring their superior revenue potential.
Match-3 puzzles emerged as a top mini-program genre, boasting 56.9% user penetration among IAA games and 76.4% ad acceptance rates. Their accessibility and instant gratification drove popularity.
Future marketing directions include: 1. **Deeper platform-developer collaboration**, exemplified by Tencent Ads’ three-phase support for mini-program games (concept validation, optimization, scaling). 2. **Playable ads + mini-games synergy**, with WeChat playable ad spend surging 844% YoY. 3. **Creative automation and smart bidding tools** to enhance ad relevance and ROI. 4. **Shift to depth metrics**, accelerating automated marketing adoption via AI solutions like Tencent’s "Miao" series. 5. **PC as secondary marketing channel**, with 68.5% mobile gamers also playing on computers—enabling cross-platform user acquisition.