China's Games are Tiny
WeChat's Mini Games have exploded in China, with 400MM+ MAU.
What feels like old news in China isn’t even trending in the West.
We visited Beijing last week only to catch the capital’s first blizzard in years, covering the Hutong alleyways with snow and ice.
The first thing that local games industry friends (and local cab drivers) mentioned was how they and their kids play games today. On their phones, yes… but not exactly as you’d expect.
“Mini games” are cloud-based social games embedded in the China’s most popular apps like WeChat (WeiXin) and TikTok (DouYin), with over 400MM MAU as of June 2023. That number is likely a multiple higher today.
Local industry friend Cherry Chen’s company ESIGAME brings games into China, and has had specific success with Mini Games this year, with substantially lower user acquisition (UA) costs compared to normal mobile games.
For a local, you’re already on WeChat all day. It’s easy to see what your friends are playing, and join them in one or two taps from your home screen. No additional download or login required. Gaming (or generally spending time with friends) doesn’t get simpler than that.
By embedding games directly in-app streamed directly to your phone, the ability for app stores to track in-app purchases (IAP) also gets murkier. Is IAP now obfuscated and untracked, since they happen “off store”?
We recently covered CrazyGames, a browser based games store with 30MM+ MAU that also identified the trend of playing games outside of typical mobile app stores, with vastly simplified UX. WeChat’s Mini Games dive head first in that direction, pulling hundreds of millions of players with them, many of whom could be first time gamers, who were only now introduced to games through their WeChat friends.
The games market is clearly splitting in two. On one end of the spectrum, you have “hardcore” games that are detailed, with thousands of hours to play, and expensive to make. Think GTA VI.
On the other end are “hypercasual” games that are short, social, fun, and pack a punch of fun in a short time. Think Mini Games.
What happens to the middle market, is anybody’s guess…
At the same time, TikTok is winding down its games business… but mini games continue as an integral part of the ByteDance app ecosystem. Perhaps signaling a company refocus to the casual side instead of the hardcore, and clearly not exiting games altogether.
What’s also interesting is how the spectrum of games will develop by region based on lifestyle differences. With more Americans working from home right next to their favorite PC or console, we may lean to hardcore titles. While regions like Japan and Korea, who’ve fully returned to the office, are back on the mobile bite-size grind.
The move to mini may be an early signal for games to replace apps altogether in the future, and “apps” becoming the “stores” of today. 43% of Gen-Alpha already spend more time on Roblox and Fortnite combined versus TikTok and YouTube combined. Who’s to say a “game developer” becomes a general “software developer” in the next couple years?
We believe games are the apps of the future. Software for daily life, which can be made by anyone.
Stay warm, and add me on WeChat.
Kai Boyd
Co-Founder & CEO
Conduit.gg