Reporter of the Economic Business: Zhu Peng Editor of the Economic Business: Zhang Haini
Picture source: Daily Economic News Wenduo Photo (Data Photo)
According to the latest statistics of gamma data , the actual sales revenue of the Chinese game market in the third quarter of this year (July to September) was 59.703 billion yuan, a month-on-month decrease of 12.61% and a year-on-year decrease of 19.13%, but the month-on-month decrease was slightly narrower than in the second quarter.
According to the "China Game Industry Report from January to June 2022", in the first half of this year, the actual sales revenue of the Chinese game market was 147.789 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.8%; the user scale was about 666 million, a year-on-year decrease of 0.13%. Looking back at the performance of the domestic game market after three-quarters of this year, the performance of the "pressure" is particularly clear.
As a content industry, users are the core of industry development. Just as cinemas need to think about how to retain audiences, the game industry must also maintain the basic plan of users while exploring and exploring more industry possibilities while complying with various regulatory regulations.
A senior industry analyst who did not want to be named said in an interview with a WeChat reporter from " Daily Economic News " on the evening of October 23: "The market situation in the third quarter needs to be viewed from different perspectives. First of all, the market base last year was indeed relatively high, and the third quarter of this year was the first summer vacation after the implementation of relevant regulatory measures for the protection of minors, so there will be a certain impact. Secondly, in the second and third quarters, there were not many new games in the market." The number of mobile game products suspended by
has increased significantly
In the domestic game market, mobile games have long dominated the market, so the performance of mobile games has undoubtedly become the "barometer" of the industry to some extent.
According to gamma data, in the third quarter of this year, the actual sales revenue of the domestic mobile game market was 41.643 billion yuan, accounting for 69.75% of the overall market revenue in the third quarter. Mobile game revenue in the third quarter fell by 16.79% month-on-month and 24.93% year-on-year, but the month-on-month decline narrowed compared with the previous quarter. In addition, the number of mobile game products suspended in the third quarter increased by 88.9% month-on-month compared with the previous quarter, of which 88% of the products came from Tencent .
Image source: Gamma Data "Game Industry Report for the Third Quarter of 2022" Screenshot
Report analysis said that the reason for the narrowing of the month-on-month decline is that the third quarter includes summer, and the user's game duration has increased. At the same time, enterprises generally launched activities during this period to stimulate the growth of flows. The performance of new games in the third quarter was not as good as the same period last year, and the decline in long-term product turnover was one of the reasons for the significant year-on-year decline in the mobile game market size.
Take Perfect World (SZ002624, stock price 11.87 yuan, market value 23.027 billion yuan) as an example. According to its latest third-quarter report, the company achieved revenue of 1.788 billion yuan in the third quarter of this year and achieved net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 304 million yuan. Perfect World achieved game business revenue of 5.448 billion yuan in the first three quarters of this year (after excluding the impact of changes in the merger scope), and increased by 4.46% year-on-year, and performance growth mainly comes from the good performance contribution of products such as " Fantasy New Zhuxian " and " Fantasy Tower ".
It is reported that the mobile game "Fantasy New Zhu Xian" was launched in June last year. It is a new product created by Perfect World with the help of Zhu Xian IP, proving the importance of having the ability to operate high-quality products on a long-term basis to the game company. In addition, "Fantasy Tower", which was publicly beta at the end of last year, is a representative work of Perfect World's diversified integration in trend-oriented categories, and also reflects the boost to performance of innovative new games.
Although the mobile game market size is under pressure, the client game market size has still achieved a slight increase. According to gamma data, the actual sales revenue of domestic client games in the third quarter was 15.565 billion yuan, an increase of 2.08% month-on-month and 3.17% year-on-year. The report analysis stated that the third quarter was one of the traditional peak seasons for client games.
only 1 new game is on the top ten, self-developed games are under pressure in the overseas market
The overall scale of the market is affected by various factors. Returning to the specific competition, it can be found that the market competition is still diversified.
According to gamma data, among the top 10 mobile game calculation lists in the third quarter of this year, there are rich game types, including 7 types, which reflects that the current game track pattern is still open. However, among the 10 games listed, Tencent and NetEase accounted for 6 and 2 respectively, almost dominating the list. In addition, only 1 new game among the 10 games, and the new game is also from NetEase.
Image source: Gamma Data "2022 Third Quarter Game Industry Report" Screenshot
IP-type products have no need to prove the money-absorbing power of " Honor of Kings ", " Peace Elite ", " Fantasy Westward Journey " is the best evidence to firmly sit in the top three. However, if the game market wants to further develop, it is an unavoidable question whether game companies can continue to launch high-quality new products.
In this regard, the above analyst believes that the output of high-quality new products is indeed difficult. "First of all, the R&D cycle is very long, and the development cost of high-quality projects is getting higher and higher. But I think the market competitiveness of high-quality new products is unquestionable. The current situation is that there is insufficient supply, and this trend is indeed difficult to reverse in the short term."
Create high-quality new products is also a comprehensive test of the comprehensive capabilities of game companies. Taking Perfect World as an example, it mentioned in its third-quarter financial report that in order to create high-quality products, it has always adhered to technology-driven and has continuously accumulated advantages in core technologies such as game engine research and development, commercial engine application, 3D modeling and rendering. The transformation and upgrading of enterprises is also a keyword that major game companies have repeatedly mentioned in the past few years.
"Game products are essentially project-based. Transformation and upgrading are nothing more than making breakthroughs in technology or organizational structure. Technical exploration is something that the entire industry is doing. As for organizational structure, such as removing some relatively redundant project teams, allocating remaining resources more reasonably and efficiently, and establishing an efficient middle platform. I think leading companies are doing well in this area." The above analyst said.
The performance of overseas markets is also under pressure. According to Gamma data, China's actual sales revenue in overseas markets of independently developed games was US$4.262 billion, a month-on-month decrease of 3.91%. "The overseas market is also short of new products, and the fluctuations in the global economic environment of are also one of the influencing factors," said the above analyst.
Image source: Gamma Data "Game Industry Report for the Third Quarter of 2022" Screenshot
However, judging from the performance of game performance that has achieved flow growth in overseas markets, the ways to stimulate the market are also diverse, such as timely version updates and holding international events can effectively stimulate user activity. For example, the version updates and adjustments of "The No. 7 Fortress Mobile Game" every month; while the international competition held by " Legend of Duel " in the third quarter significantly boosted the product market performance.
Regarding the current pressure status of overseas markets, the above-mentioned analysts maintain a positive attitude. They believe that domestic game companies will not slow down their overseas travel because of short-term pressure. "Companies that actively explore overseas markets are still relatively stable."
Daily Economic News
