2024 Annual Ranking of Chinese Mobile Games Going Abroad

Author: AppMagic

Image source | pexels

AppMagic released the 2024 Annual Ranking of Chinese Mobile Games Going Overseas (by revenue). Looking at the 2024 overseas mobile game list, there are not only well-known veteran publishers but also emerging publishers. Some high-quality long-term operational games have been online for over 7 years and continue to perform strongly. Among the top 30 annual overseas revenue games, 5 are new releases launched overseas in 2024. In the top 30, the proportion of games that have been operating overseas for more than 3 years is about 60%, more than 5 years is 40%, and more than 7 years is 20% (see appendix at the end for details). In terms of categories, strategy games account for 40%, RPGs about 30%, and puzzle merge gameplay about 10% (see appendix at the end for details).

Here are the details of the rankings:

All three main products of miHoYo made the list, making it the publisher with the most games on the ranking. According to AppMagic's data estimates, the total revenue after revenue sharing for the three games "Genshin Impact," "Honkai: Star Rail," and "Honkai: Zero" exceeds $860 million in 2024, with miHoYo's main products' overseas revenue remaining basically the same as in 2023.

Lemon Microfun is undoubtedly the dark horse among mobile game publishers going overseas in 2024, with its two products "Gossip Harbor@: Merge&Story" and "Seaside Escape@: Merge&Story" growing in an extremely stable manner in 2024. Both games have annual overseas revenue exceeding $100 million, with total revenue exceeding $300 million. According to AppMagic's custom game classification label ranking, there are 4 merge gameplay mobile games with revenue exceeding $100 million after revenue sharing in 2024, with the other two being "Travel Town" and "Merge Mansion." Lemon Microfun has now become the world's number one publisher of merge mobile games.

Tencent's overseas business performed excellently in 2024. Group Chairman and CEO Ma Huateng stated at the annual employee meeting that the Interactive Entertainment Group (IEG) overall is "very impressive," and revealed that "Tencent's share of overseas games has approached half of its domestic game business." In the monthly overseas rankings for 2024, multiple products under Tencent have consistently made the list. The version of "PUBG MOBILE" published by Tencent has performed very steadily, with AppMagic data showing that the revenue after revenue sharing for Tencent's published version has remained stable at $30 million per month in 2024. Additionally, "PUBG MOBILE" (including "Peacekeeper Elite") has become the second highest-grossing mobile game globally from 2015 to present Le Element's "Idol Dream Festival 2," NetEase's "Knives Out," and Yostar's "Blue Archive" are among the few games in the top 30 overseas revenue rankings that rely solely on a single market for income (almost all overseas revenue comes from Japan). According to the AppMagic game custom tag classification rankings, "Idol Dream Festival 2" ranks second in Japan's 2024 rhythm game annual revenue list, with revenue very close to the first place "HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE!" Both games have annual revenues exceeding $80 million after revenue sharing, far ahead of the third place with $25 million. Since its launch in the Japanese market, "Knives Out" has dominated the annual revenue ranking of Japanese shooting games for seven consecutive years. The game's revenue in the Japanese market for 2024 is approximately $120 million after revenue sharing, three times that of competitors "Call of Duty: Mobile" (published by Activision Blizzard) and "PUBG Mobile" (published by Bluehole).

Established SLG developer Jiangyu Interactive has been steadily operating "Top War: Battle Game" while launching a new product "Top Heroes" (Song of the Kingdom) in early 2024, attempting to integrate new gameplay into SLG games. "Top Heroes" is a 4X SLG mobile game that initially focuses on "mercenary-like" gameplay and incorporates idle card elements. According to AppMagic data estimates, the game's overseas revenue after sharing in 2024 has exceeded $100 million.

DianDian Interactive's "Whiteout Survival" has surpassed $800 million in overseas revenue after sharing in 2024, with monthly revenue growing from $50 million in January to $90 million in December. In the 2024 global mobile game revenue rankings, "Whiteout Survival" ranks 8th, with AppMagic data estimating its global App Store + Google Play revenue (excluding third-party app stores and WeChat mini-game revenue) to be around $1 billion after sharing.

Among other new mobile games launched in 2024, "AFK Journey," "Ming Chao," and "Love and Deep Space" have all exceeded $100 million in annual overseas revenue after sharing.

Appendix 1: Game Category Distribution