The domestic gaming industry's first-half report card is officially out, with market revenue and user scale reaching new highs. Zhang Yijun, First Vice Chairman of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association, released a report at the 2026 China International Digital Entertainment Industry Conference, showing that actual sales revenue of the domestic gaming market reached 188.45 billion yuan in the first half of 2026, up 12.17% year-on-year, while the user base hit 684 million, up 0.82% year-on-year, both record highs. Mobile game revenue was 135.21 billion yuan, up 7.9% year-on-year, and client game revenue was 45.288 billion yuan, surging 27.92% year-on-year, with cross-platform titles and long-running PC games becoming core growth drivers. Lightweight mini-program games continued their explosive trend, with revenue of 31.657 billion yuan, a sharp 36.01% year-on-year increase, of which in-app purchase revenue was 21.137 billion yuan and ad monetization revenue was 10.52 billion yuan. Web game revenue was 2.016 billion yuan, down 8.47% year-on-year, and console game revenue was 961 million yuan, down 7.06% year-on-year. Attendees widely noted that AI technology is permeating the entire gaming industry chain. Sun Shoushan, Chairman of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association, pointed out that AI has become a normalized infrastructure empowering industry development, with the global adoption rate of AI technology among gaming companies reaching 86%, over ten thousand games on Steam labeled as AI-assisted creations, and domestic companies such as Tencent, Shengqu Games, and Giant Network ramping up their AI technology deployment.
Tencent Holdings LtdRecord gaming market revenue and user growth, with Tencent mentioned as ramping up AI deployment, indicating strong industry demand.
Giant Network Group Co LtdGiant Network explicitly named as ramping up AI technology deployment, a positive tech development.
YOUZU Interactive Co Ltd