5 Chinese Developed Games That Have Dominated the Competition

Chinese-made games have been around for ages, but they’ve only recently become popular worldwide. In the past, a game could be hugely successful in China without anyone outside the country knowing about it. While that still happens sometimes, it’s becoming less common as more Chinese games gain international recognition.

Over the last ten years, Chinese games – especially those using the ‘gacha’ model – have become incredibly popular and changed how free-to-play games work on computers, consoles, and phones. One single-player game from China broke sales records on Steam, and its upcoming sequel, Black Myth: Zhong Kui, is expected to do the same. Chinese games aren’t just present in the market now; they’re poised to become leaders in the industry.

1. Genshin Impact

The Chinese Game That Defined Modern Gacha

miHoYo’s HoYoverse has significantly changed the gaming landscape, especially with the success of Genshin Impact. Launched in 2020, the free-to-play open-world game quickly became popular and received widespread praise for its easy-to-learn but engaging gameplay, beautiful graphics, regular updates, and appealing characters. Its ‘gacha’ system, which encourages continued play and spending, has been a key to its success, creating a model that other game companies have tried to copy without achieving the same results.

Love it or hate it, Genshin Impact has undeniably made a huge impact on the gaming world. It’s the most successful Chinese game to date in terms of global reach and how long it’s stayed popular. By 2022, the mobile game had already earned over $3 billion, and Activeplayer.io reports it currently has more than 3.5 million daily players and 19 million monthly players. Its massive success practically guaranteed that the developer, miHoYo’s, later games – Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero – would also be hits, and all three games continue to thrive years after they were first released.

If Genshin Impact hadn’t been so incredibly popular, we might not be getting this new Chinese game planned for 2026.

2. Neverness to Everness

The Smash Hit Of 2026

Currently, “Neverness to Everness” is the most popular game in the gacha world, and Hotta Studio’s new project has quickly become a success. According to a translation of a developer interview shared on Reddit by Resident-Bridge2731, the game made over $14 million on its first day, with the majority of that revenue coming from PC and PlayStation 5 players, not mobile users.

Just two weeks after it launched, Neverness to Everness has already earned over $500 million and been downloaded more than 30 million times, according to Gacharevenue. By any measure, it’s the biggest game release of 2026 so far, and it’s likely to remain so until Grand Theft Auto 6 arrives. The game’s success is probably due to its high quality – it features a unique city setting, currently includes 15 playable characters, boasts impressive cutscenes, and has excellent fighting mechanics.

3. Honor of Kings

The Biggest Mobile Game In The World (And By A Distance)

If you mainly play games on PC or consoles, you might not know Honor of Kings, but it’s actually one of the most popular games in the world, having been a huge hit for nearly ten years. While it didn’t launch globally under that name until 2024, an international version called Arena of Valor was released in 2017. By 2019, SensorTower reported that the two games had already earned over $4.5 billion, with $200 million coming from outside of China. Since then, it’s continued to be the top-grossing mobile game, a title it easily maintained through 2025.

While Honor of Kings isn’t as popular in the United States as it is elsewhere, it’s still been incredibly successful globally. In fact, Appmagic reports that it’s currently the fifth highest-grossing app worldwide, trailing only TikTok, ChatGPT, Google One, and YouTube – which is a remarkable achievement.

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4. Black Myth: Wukong

One Of The Biggest Single-Player Games Of The 2020s

Up until now, we’ve focused a lot on free-to-play games, which China dominates. But recently, more single-player games made in China have become popular, and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a great example. It gained a lot of attention by being available on both Game Pass and PlayStation Plus.

While one Soulslike game found success, Black Myth: Wukong truly dominated the gaming landscape in 2024, quickly becoming one of Steam’s top-selling titles even though it launched in August. It reached a peak of over 2.4 million concurrent players on Steam alone, the second-highest number ever recorded. Game Science’s adaptation of Journey to the West consistently broke records in its first few months, earning $800 million within three weeks – easily covering its estimated $70 million development cost. By January 2025, the game had sold an impressive 25 million copies.

Despite being released almost two years ago, Black Myth: Wukong continues to attract over 15,000 players on Steam at the same time – a remarkably high number for a game designed to be played solo.

5. Where Winds Meet

The New Standard For Free-To-Play Games

We’re back talking about free-to-play games, but Where Winds Meet is unlike anything like Genshin Impact or Tower of Fantasy. It’s a beautiful action RPG inspired by Chinese history and mythology, and it’s raising the bar for this type of game. It offers a really strong single-player experience that’s mostly free – you might have to wait a bit sometimes, but it’s worth it. The multiplayer is separate, giving players something to do while they wait for new updates, which have been coming out quickly since launch. Instead of making you collect characters, Where Winds Meet lets you explore and interact with the world in many different ways, through unique lifestyles and creative combat options.

Before launching worldwide, Where Winds Meet was already incredibly popular in China, and that success continued internationally. The game has received generally positive reviews on Steam and mobile platforms, and it was even nominated for a D.I.C.E. Mobile Game of the Year award, proving it’s both a hit with players and critically acclaimed.

2026-05-14 21:44