Three Pillars of Policy, Products and Esports All Gain Positive Momentum, China’s Game Industry Embraces a Golden Autumn Growth Window

Since the start of October, positive signals have continued to emerge across China’s game industry. On the regulatory front, the regular issuance of game licenses supports steady content supply; on the product front, user scale for top-tier titles has hit new highs; and in the esports sector, the world’s premier tournament is about to kick off. With simultaneous progress across policy, products and esports, the industry is presenting an overall landscape of steady recovery.

On September 30, the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) officially released the September 2026 game approval results. A total of 209 games passed the review that month, including 206 domestic online games and 3 imported online games. Among the approved titles, Yuan Chu Zhi Jie, a realistic multiplayer co-op action game developed by miHoYo with Unreal Engine 5 (UE5), has attracted widespread industry attention. As of September 2026, the cumulative number of approved game licenses for the year had reached 1,571. The stable and predictable approval rhythm has not only given R&D enterprises greater certainty, but also driven more high-quality R&D projects to move from the planning stage to implementation. This continues to enrich China’s game product portfolio and lays a solid content foundation for the industry’s medium- and long-term growth.

On October 8, Delta Force, developed by Tencent’s TiMi Studio, delivered a new update: its daily active users (DAU) officially exceeded 58 million, growing by roughly 28 million — nearly doubling — over the past year. As a leading title in China’s shooter category, the sustained growth of Delta Force both confirms the user vitality of the broader game genre and reflects that the developer’s long-term investment in content updates and cross-platform experience optimization has entered a payoff period. It stands as a microcosm of the high-quality development trend in today’s game market.

In the esports arena, the League of Legends World Championship 2026 (S16) is just around the corner. Four teams from the LPL — AL, BLG, TES and IG — have locked in their qualification spots and will compete for the global championship title. The tournament will run from October 15 to November 14 across three U.S. cities: Los Angeles, Allen (Texas) and New York, with 19 teams from regions worldwide competing on the same stage. After years of development, the LPL has become a core signature of China’s esports industry. Behind the region’s competitiveness lies a mature youth training system, sophisticated commercial operations and a massive user base — a vivid reflection of how the game industry is extending from product offerings to a broader cultural ecosystem.

The steady supply of game licenses has shored up the fundamentals of industry development. The standout performance of top-tier titles has validated market consumption vitality. And esports events continue to expand industrial boundaries and elevate the industry’s social value. Together, these three forces underpin the warming trend of China’s game industry from the three dimensions of policy guarantee, market dynamism and cultural export. As more new titles launch in the fourth quarter and international tournaments move forward, the game industry is expected to sustain its growth momentum and unlock greater industrial value.

*Data aggregation is sourced from Gghubs.