All five Best Mobile Game nominations at Gamescom went to Chinese studios, and miHoYo's Nodusfall was the first title to take the stage on opening night.
On the opening night of Gamescom, the first to take the stage wasn't Nintendo, nor Ubisoft — it was a Chinese company, miHoYo. Foreign media wrote it plainly: Chinese studios appear far more frequently than those of any other country, and their diverse products are proving that Chinese games are no longer synonymous with mobile games. Gghubs supports homegrown products.
On August 26 local time, Gamescom 2026 opened in Cologne, Germany, with German President Steinmeier personally opening the event (Xinhua Net). This year's show drew more than 1,700 exhibitors, including over 70 Chinese companies — a record high. The two-and-a-half-hour opening night livestream bombarded viewers with 69 trailers, 13 of them from China — and miHoYo's brand-new UE5 realistic title Nodusfall took the stage as the very first game of the show, marking the first time a Chinese company has led off the Gamescom opening night.
The most explosive part was the awards. On August 24, Gamescom announced its nominations, and all five spots for “Best Mobile Game” were taken by Chinese companies: Arknights: Endfield from Hypergryph, Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero from miHoYo, Silver City from Happy Elements, and Where Winds Meet from NetEase — a first in history (GamerSky). At the ceremony on August 28, Where Winds Meet ultimately took home the trophy, also marking the first time a NetEase self-developed game has won at Gamescom, by which point its cumulative global player count had already surpassed 100 million (NetEase). Even more encouraging was the single-player front: Tides of Annihilation from a Chengdu team scored two nominations — “Most Epic” and “Best Sony PlayStation Game” — a historic breakthrough for homegrown buy-to-play games in console categories.
What earned Nodusfall the opening slot? Because it's miHoYo's “rebellious work.” Realistic fantasy, multiplayer co-op, UE5 engine — with a dark art style that hardly looks like miHoYo at all. The Qiongqi and nine-tailed fox from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the dragons of Norse mythology, fire giants — Eastern and Western mythical beasts are all blended into one vast world (Game Gyro). What got players even more excited was the business model: PC Gamer's on-site interview confirmed that characters won't use random gacha draws, being unlocked through gameplay progression instead, with monetization relying mainly on cosmetics. The debut PV on Bilibili has already surpassed a million views.
The release-date wave followed. NetEase's Ananta officially announced a global simultaneous launch on January 15, 2027, covering PC, PS5, and mobile, with global pre-registrations topping 10 million (Baidu Baike). Showa American Story, quiet for two years, returned with a new gameplay trailer and offered offline demos on site. Tencent's booth doubled in size from last year, dominating the center of the exhibition hall. The publisher 4Divinity alone brought six original Chinese-style IPs, with over 2 million Steam wishlists combined and over 280 million global views (NetEase).
The buzz wasn't limited to the main hall. The indie game area drew more than 420 companies this year, up 16% from 2025; Tencent gathered four products under the Honor of Kings IP for their first joint appearance, from MOBA to open-world RPG, offering on-site demos ranging from 15 to 45 minutes (Global Times). The industry's winds are shifting too: at the Gamescom dev conference, 32 of the 220 thematic sessions were about game AI, up more than 45% year over year, and surveys show 36% of practitioners believe AI changes job roles rather than causing layoffs (Xinhua Net).
Why this year? The answer lies in one phrase: going global as an industry. In the past, Chinese games went overseas on the strength of individual hits; now, R&D, publishing, brand, and IP are all moving outward together. That foreign-media line — “Chinese games are no longer synonymous with mobile games” — isn't just politeness: the buy-to-play single-player titles Tides of Annihilation, Animal Punk, The Resistors, and Ape Sword all exhibited together, and console categories earned two nominations, something unimaginable just three years ago.
But let's pour some cold water: sweeping all five nominations is a win for mobile, but the major console awards are still firmly in the hands of Western and Japanese giants. This is miHoYo's first time making a realistic co-op game, venturing into the lane occupied by Monster Hunter and Elden Ring — and the odds of a newcomer stumbling aren't low. 10 million pre-registrations are just pre-registrations; launch is the real test.
I grew up in the era of “Chinese games = knockoffs,” and watching a Chinese company take the stage first on opening night, I felt a little dazed. But the more this happens, the less we should get carried away. Gamescom is just the stage; the real exam is the players' wallets.
Did you follow Gamescom? Among Nodusfall, Ananta, and Tides of Annihilation, which are you most looking forward to? Come chat in the Gghubs comments section.