Last year, the coronavirus crisis spurred app use in the US as people stay indoors to limit contact with others. Mobile games in particular have boomed, and among them, games from Chinese studios are becoming increasingly popular.
Games released on the US App Store and the Google Play Store achieved total sales of $ 5.8 billion in the fourth quarter. This corresponds to a year-on-year increase of 34.3% and a share of over a quarter of global mobile gaming revenue. This emerges from a new report from the market research company Sensor tower.
During the quarter, Chinese titles contributed up to 20% to US mobile game sales. This made China the largest importer of mobile games in the US thanks to some blockbuster titles. Chinese publishers ranked 21 in the top 100 top-grossing games for the period, with total sales of $ 780 million in the United States, the world’s largest mobile game market, more than three times last year.
Well-known Chinese titles such as the first person shooter game Call of Duty, a collaboration between Tencent and Activision, and the battlefields of Tencent’s PlayerUnknown take first place. But smaller Chinese studios are also quickly infiltrating the US market.
Mihoyo, a little-known studio outside of China, has caused a sensation in the domestic game industry with its hit game Genshin Impact, an anime-style role-playing game featuring characters. It was the sixth highest earning mobile game in the US in the fourth quarter $ 100 million in sales for the period.
Most notably, Mihoyo has been an independent studio since its inception in 2011. Unlike many gaming startups that are asking for funds from industrial titans like Tencent, Mihoyo has only raised a modest amount to begin with. It has also been controversial about skipping big distributors like Tencent and phone providers Huawei and Xiaomi and posting Genshin Impact on Bilibili, a video site popular with Chinese youth, as well as the game download platform, Taptap.
Magic Tavern, the developer of the puzzle game Project Makeover, one of the most installed mobile games in the US since late last year, is another lesser-known studio. Founded by a team of Tsinghua graduates with offices around the world, Magic Tavern is considered one of the first studios with roots in China to gain a foothold in the American casual game market. KKR-supported gaming company AppLovin is a strategic investor in the Magic Tavern.
Other popular games in the US also have ties to China if they are not directly owned by a Chinese company. Shortcut Run and Roof Nails are works by French casual game maker Voodoo, which last year received a minority stake from Tencent. Tencent is also a strategic investor in Roblox, the young player-focused gaming platform set to go public in the coming weeks.