Amid the stock competition in China's domestic mobile game market, expanding overseas has become an inevitable choice for Chinese game enterprises. According to CMGE's 2025 first-half financial report, its overseas business is achieving a crucial breakthrough: overseas distribution revenue reached 235 million yuan in the first half, accounting for 30.8% of total distribution revenue, a significant jump from 14.1%, with a year-on-year growth of 33.2%. This data not only reflects the fruits of its regional expansion but also reveals a globalization logic centered on certainty.
Image source: CMGE official website
Steadiness First: Domestic Validation, Then Overseas Distribution Tracing CMGE's overseas expansion history, its path exhibits a clear "domestic-overseas" regional progression logic. In essence, its products typically undergo full validation of core gameplay, business models, and user retention in the Chinese mainland market before being systematically launched into culturally similar overseas regions.
Take its title *New The Legend of Sword and Fairy: Wielding Sword to Ask Love* as an example. After garnering over 8 million pre-registrations and exceeding 200 million yuan in first-month revenue in China in 2023, the game debuted in China's Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau regions the same year. The team integrated local folk customs to launch online and offline activities such as "electronic worship" and "flower cart parade," propelling the game to the top of the free charts in the three regions and the best-selling charts in Hong Kong and Macau, making it a standout overseas release that year.
Another commercial hit, *New The Legend of the Condor Heroes: Loyalty and Bravery*, maintained top rankings after its domestic launch and expanded overseas five months later. The Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau versions accelerated their update pace by 1.5 times; in Singapore and Malaysia, localized adaptations were made to plots like the reunion of Xiao Longnu and Yang Guo, as well as Zhang Wuji painting eyebrows for Zhao Min. These efforts enabled the game to top the free charts upon release and quickly climb into the upper echelons of the best-selling charts.
Similarly, *Dynasty Warriors: Overlord*, which inherits Koei Tecmo's interpretation of the Three Kingdoms history and moderately heroizes the generals, achieved over 8 million pre-registrations domestically and topped the iOS free chart within three hours of launch. It then maintained a leading position in the action game charts for an extended period in China's Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and Malaysia. After entering the Japanese market in September 2025, it swiftly rose to second place on the free chart, demonstrating the appeal of classic IPs in mature markets.
Another top-tier national comic IP adaptation, *Battle Through the Heavens: Peak Showdown*, ranked second on Apple's free chart in its first month of domestic launch and received the "Super Star Recommendation" from Hardcore Alliance. Its overseas version, *Battle Through the Heavens: Wushuang*, broke free from pure online promotion by successfully integrating the game into users' daily scenarios, leading it to top the free charts in multiple regions upon its launch in China's Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and Malaysia.
CMGE's *Soul Land* series products, such as *Soul Land: Shrek Academy* and *Soul Land: Reversing Time and Space*, also follow the "validation-replication" path, achieving stable performance in culturally similar regions like Southeast Asia and highlighting the efficiency of this model.
It is evident that CMGE does not simply copy products; instead, based on domestic success, it deeply adapts to regional characteristics in content rhythm, plot expression, and marketing methods, gradually forming a replicable and refined overseas expansion model.
Forward-Looking Layout: Responding to Industry Evolution and Market Boundaries Despite remarkable achievements in culturally proximate markets, CMGE faces the challenge of growth boundaries. Currently, its successful overseas cases remain concentrated in the Asian region, while in mainstream markets like Europe and America, users have a stronger preference for original IPs, open worlds, and highly narrative gameplay. This demands more fundamental innovations in product design and cultural expression from the enterprise.
The industry is also evolving rapidly. The hybrid monetization model (IAA) centered on "free download + ad monetization" is increasingly becoming mainstream, accounting for over half of global game revenue. In response to this trend, it is reported that CMGE has laid out dozens of IAA products for overseas validation, while its technical team continuously optimizes the投放 and ROI evaluation models. It is speculated that this is laying the groundwork for systematic advancement in the future, attempting to build a "light and heavy integration" global product matrix.
Public information shows that its product pipeline continues to focus on the Asian market. Its self-developed Three Kingdoms-themed strategy mobile game *City Lord of the World* is represented by Wanxin Buzhi for overseas distribution; on July 31, 2025, its overseas version *Three Kingdoms: Heroes Ablaze* was officially launched in China's Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau regions, Singapore, and Malaysia, with subsequent launches planned in Vietnam and South Korea. Additionally, *Soul Land: Reversing Time and Space* is scheduled to enter the Southeast Asian market; *Soul Land: Shrek Academy* is set to expand into South Korea; and *New Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Cao Cao's Biography* is targeted at China's Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau regions. The next test for CMGE will be how to consolidate existing advantages while more flexibly responding to the global market rhythm.
CMGE's product *New Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Cao Cao's Biography* (Image source: CMGE official website)
Overall, CMGE's 30.8% overseas growth is no accident but a rational outcome built on regional deep cultivation, IP operation, and progressive expansion. From "going out" to "integrating in", CMGE's progressive journey is also a microcosm of the globalization process of China's game industry.
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