Recently, the Chinese game industry summarized the harvest of the past year and implemented a new plan for 2023.
According to statistics from the State Administration of Press and Publication of China, the agency has licensed a total of 512 new games in 2022, down 32.18% year-on-year and year-on-year decrease. almost half of the number of versions released in 2021. You will find that the total number of versions has decreased for 5 consecutive years since 2018.
It is worth noting that although the number of versions decreased in 2022, there have been some positive new changes. For example, a number of provincial offices and centrally run cities have become pilot provinces and cities for approval, and 16 game versions have been reviewed and released.
Chart of games licensed in the mainland.
In April 2022, version management issued the first batch of game version numbers in 2022, announcing that version numbering for more than 8 months had been halted. Since then, except for the deferral of version numbers in May and October, version numbers have been issued in June, July, August, September, November and December, i.e. version numbers will be granted for more than half of the months in 2022.
As usual, the number of imported game versions will be issued once a year, this year the approval time for imported games will be announced on December 28. A total of 44 imported game versions will be issued, and 84 domestic game versions will be released simultaneously December 2022 has become the month with the most number of versions released in the past year and this looks to be a good start to the year ahead.
+ For mobile games:
In 2022, a total of 474 licensed mobile games, including 441 mainland games and 33 imported games, an overall decrease of 33.42% from last year’s 712 games and a decrease of 45.2 % last year. Mobile games remain the category with the highest number of approved versions, accounting for 92.57%, and their share of the total has fallen slightly from last year’s historic high of 93%.
China game market revenue chart.
+ For game client on PC:
In 2022, a total of 43 PC client games will be licensed by version number, including 34 games in mainland China and 9 imported games, up 30.3% from last year’s 33 games.
+ For webgames:
Only 1 licensed webgame in 2022, down 66.67% from last year’s 3 games, the decline of webgames is a predictable trend.
For game consoles:
In 2022, there are a total of 9 licensed console games, including 5 made in China and 4 imported games, down 47.05% from 17 games last year. The main reason for the decline is that most console games are imported from abroad and version number resources continue to shrink and manufacturers are perfecting self-developed products.
Also in March 2022, the second session of the National People’s Congress of China was held, many National Assembly deputies also pointed out that with the joint efforts of the whole society, preventing minors’ gaming addiction has achieved remarkable results, positive changes in the prevention and control of over-indulgence in gaming among young people.
