The approvals published on September 30 covered 206 domestic titles plus 3 imports. Year to date through September, 1,571 games have been licensed in 2026, a roughly 23 percent increase over the same period last year .
What Was in the September Approval List
The Names That Matter
miHoYo's The Origin's Knot (no official English title yet), a multi-mythology co-op fantasy action game, is the headline entry. Also approved: Zulong Entertainment's The Master of the Occult：Fool, Kingnet's Dragon Valley：Awakening, and 4399's Fireline Elite: Breakthrough and Dream Painting Block. That list is a decent proxy for the next four quarters of pipeline. The Origin's Knot stands out as a new IP from China's biggest premium studio, and it was already shown publicly at Gamescom, meaning the marketing build-up started before the license landed. The three imported titles are 3 vs. 3 Street Basketball, Bloody Feud: Restart, and Modern Tanks. Another 15 games filed information changes, including Lilith Games renaming Wan Long Awakening to Dragons and Conflicts .
October 13 on the Board
A-share online gaming names climbed on October 13. Shifeng Culture, Tianyu Digital Technology, and Fengyu Zhu all closed 10% higher at the limit-up. Zhanqu Technology gained more than 7%, Kaisa Culture more than 6%, and Huaru Technology more than 5 percent .
Turnover in the gaming ETF 159869 has been steady as well, with net inflows on six of the ten trading days through September 30, totaling 374 million yuan . The catalyst was that September 30 list. The market's logic is simple: when approvals arrive on a steady cadence, the timing of revenue recognition becomes predictable.
The Ripple Effect: What License Volume Actually Changes
Time Is the Real Saving
The improvement is not only about volume. Several listed studios noted in filings this year that the review process has been streamlined and has sped up noticeably. That directly reshapes production schedules. Teams used to budget slack for "how long until we get a license." Now they can compress the gap between completion and launch.
More Supply Means Higher User Acquisition Costs
Of the 1,571 titles approved in the first three quarters, only 46 were imported and 1,525 were domestic . One consequence of a looser supply side is fiercer competition for players. The same audience faces more new games, and user acquisition costs move up accordingly. For smaller studios, looser licensing removes the "can we launch at all" question and replaces it with "can we afford to."
Why Volume Is Not Quality
Only 46 of 1,571 Are Imports
Imports account for under 3 percent of approvals, which tells you the policy still prioritizes domestic development. The more interesting variable is AI. A research note from Guosen Securities points out that since Meta launched Horizon Create/Studio, AI game tools have moved from assisting development toward full content generation, significantly lowering the barrier to entry and shifting competition toward distribution efficiency and monetization .
Put the two together: China is speeding up approvals while the global cost of building games falls. Over the next two years there will simply be more games, and the number of slots for player attention has not grown.
The Risk: Easing at Home, Tightening Abroad
One more story from the same day is easy to miss. The Entertainment Software Association has asked the US Trade Representative to add Chinese retro handheld maker ANBERNIC to its 2026 Notorious Markets list. The ESA argues some Anbernic devices ship with memory cards preloaded with hundreds or thousands of unauthorized game ROMs, a pattern it classifies as "superfake" . The USTR has not decided.
Worth noting: Ars Technica also reports that buying directly from Anbernic's own website does not include a ROM-filled card, and that the problem sits mainly with third-party retail channels. The value of this story is not who gets punished. It is the reminder that China is loosening licensing while overseas copyright enforcement tightens. Two different rulebooks.
My Take: Limit-Up Follows Certainty, Not Earnings
A 23 percent jump in approvals does not mean the industry got healthier. It reduces uncertainty about shipping, and it loosens supply. The scarce thing was never the license. It is a product that can absorb paid acquisition spend.
The rally is pricing predictability in the approval pipeline. That is good news for the secondary market, but revenue still depends on how those titles perform after launch. Whether a big-studio release like The Origin's Knotdelivers is what decides whether this run continues. GameHub will keep tracking license cadence and product cycles.
FAQ
How often are game licenses issued in China?
A: Roughly once a month. September 2026 saw 209 approvals (206 domestic plus 3 imported), and both August and September exceeded 200 .
How long from license approval to launch?
A: There is no fixed timeline, but the window is shortening. Several companies noted faster reviews this year; miHoYo's The Origin's Knot was approved in September after being shown at Gamescom in Cologne.
What is miHoYo's The Origin's Knot?
A: Public information describes it as a multi-mythology co-op fantasy action game developed by miHoYo, licensed in September 2026. No launch date has been announced.