data.ai: DianDian Interactive topped the list of Chinese game developers' overseas revenue in February, with miHoYo following closely behind.

Zhitong App learned that on March 11th, data.ai released the February 2024 ranking of Chinese game developers and app overseas revenue. DotDot Interactive successfully topped the list of overseas revenue, followed closely by miHoYo, both achieving impressive revenue of $100 million, with MoM growth rates of 1.5% and 3.6%, respectively. Onefun advanced 3 spots to rank 3rd this period. Their 4X strategy mobile game with casual gameplay, Last War, continued to generate revenue in South Korea, the United States, and Taiwan, contributing to a 67% MoM revenue growth for the publisher.

NetEase's multiple games saw significant growth, helping the publisher climb 3 spots to 10th place. Knives Out launched its 33rd season and collaborated with "Attack on Titan," introducing popular character costumes like Eren and Mikasa. The monthly user spending in the Japanese server alone exceeded $1.6 million. Identity V launched a Spring Festival-themed event, with overseas user spending increasing by 21.6%. LifeAfter introduced new content such as the "Hope Radio" storyline and the Guardian Dragon Statue gameplay, driving a 101% increase in overseas user spending. Paper Game's new game, Love and Deepspace, boosted overseas revenue. Since February 5th, the game has updated Valentine's Day-related content, igniting player spending globally, reaching $2.5 million in a single day. It has become the highest-grossing global otome game in 2024 so far, propelling Paper Game to 21st place, the largest increase among the Top 30 overseas publishers. Other publishers with significant ranking improvements include Topwar Studio, Xindong Network, Bingchuan Network, and Wanda Cinema Games.

Emerging New Games in 2024

In the beginning of 2024, Chinese publishers have been introducing new games in the overseas market, many of which have shown promising performance, contributing to revenue growth. DotDot Interactive launched the open-world party game Livetopia: Party in January, available on both iOS and Google Play platforms, with around 1.5 million downloads by February. Despite most of the publisher's revenue coming from their 4X strategy game Whiteout Survival, this new game still maintained a growth of 265%. Indonesia stands as the largest user market for the game. Jiangyu Interactive released their second hit product, Top Heroes, a Roguelike ARPG game with a more casual gameplay compared to Top War, accumulating approximately 1.7 million new global users since its launch. In February alone, the strong revenue-generating ability of the company has surpassed $6.5 million. Thanks to the outstanding performance of new games, the publisher's overseas revenue ranking has risen to 14th place. Xindong Network and Wanda Cinema Line Games have seen growth in the Chinese Taiwan and Japanese markets with "Let's Go, Muffin" and "Saint Seiya: The Legend of Justice," respectively, moving up to 17th and 26th place.

The summary of Chinese mobile games going global in February 2024: Several new games made it to the top thirty. The top 30 products on the list generated a total of $820 million in overseas markets, with a stable MoM performance. "Whiteout Survival" has maintained its top spot on the overseas revenue list for the third consecutive month, followed closely by "Last War." According to data from data.ai, both games saw user spending exceeding $90 million in February. Among the top ten, "Honkai: Star Rail" and "Blue Archive" saw significant revenue increases, moving up by 2 and 5 places, respectively. The former benefited from the launch of version 2.0 "If Dreaming at Midnight" and the introduction of new characters, while the latter relied on the third anniversary event and resource updates in the Japanese market.

Several new games launched in 2024 made it to the top thirty revenue list, including Xindong Network's "Let's Go, Muffin" (#15), Diezhi Network's "Love and Deepspace" (#17), Wanda Cinema Line Games' "Saint Seiya: Legend Of Justice" (#22), and Jiangyu Interactive's "Top Heroes" (#30). The overseas user spending for the top three games in February has exceeded $10 million. "Let's Go, Muffin" is currently only operating in the Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan regions but has achieved tremendous success in the market with its cute cartoon style, casual gameplay, multiplayer mode, and the "Cat Worm Coffee Linkage" event, generating $18 million in revenue in February. "Love and Deepspace" has been a big hit in Japan, the United States, and Chinese Taiwan, with a combined revenue of $7.5 million in just these three markets. The IP mobile game "Saint Seiya: Legend Of Justice," which was successful in the U.S. market, has re-launched in Japan and generated over $10 million in revenue locally, showcasing the influence of IP on game appeal. "Top Heroes" saw installations exceeding 1 million in the U.S., Chinese Taiwan, Brazil, Japan, and Thailand in February, with user spending surpassing $1 million in the U.S. and Chinese Taiwan markets, quickly rising to 30th place. In addition, Top War, Peak Speed, Gossip Harbor, Knives Out, and Seaside Escape have significantly increased their overseas revenue rankings.