Video games in China

The video game industry in Mainland China currently is one of the major markets for the global video game industry, where more than half a billion people play video games. Revenues from China make up around 25% of nearly US$100 billion video game industry as of 2018, and since 2015 has exceeded the contribution to the global market from the United States.^[2] Because of its market size, China has been described as the "Games Industry Capital of the World" and is home to some of the largest video game companies.^[3] China has also been a major factor in the growth of esports, both in player talent and in revenue.

China has not always been a major factor in the industry, having been on the verge of economic recovery during the industry's formulative years in the 1970s and 1980s. With the introduction of the second-generation home gaming consoles in the mid-1980s, a new black market of illegally-imported goods and video game clones arose to avoid the high costs of imports, driving away foreign companies. Notably, China imposed a near-complete ban on video game consoles in 2000, fearing the addiction-like impact of games on its youths; the ban was ultimately lifted in 2015. During that time, China's video game market greatly expanded in the area of computer games (including massively multiplayer online games, browser games, social network games, etc.) and later mobile games, all which could be free to play titles with monetization to appeal to the average lower income of Chinese players. This massive growth from 2007 to 2013 led the games' publishers and operating companies like Tencent and NetEase to become large global companies. Despite the legitimate growth of the industry, China's video game market continues to be offset by illegal importing, copyright violation and intellectual property theft.

As with other parts of its media, China's government has strong oversight of the video game industry; all new titles go through a governmental approval process to assure that content aligns with the nation's values. In 2018, an approvals freeze due to the reorganisation of China's content vetting agencies caused numerous game releases to be held up. The video game market plummeted for a year. The government also fears the potential for its youths to become addicted to video games, and have required games to include anti-addiction measures. User verification is used to enforce playtime restrictions, which currently limit minors to three hours per week.^{[citation needed]}