{"id":11961,"date":"2023-03-15T07:30:40","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T07:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=11961"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:33:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:33:27","slug":"how-big-is-chinas-esports-market-and-what-opportunities-are-there-for-uk-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/how-big-is-chinas-esports-market-and-what-opportunities-are-there-for-uk-companies\/","title":{"rendered":"The surprising opportunities in China’s e-sports market"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a value of over \u00a317 billion and companies like Tencent and NetEase leading the way, China\u2019s e-sports market is ripe with opportunities for British businesses \u2013 from technology companies to consumer brands and beyond. Jack Forsdike<\/strong> finds out more<\/h2>\n

It is no secret that China\u2019s games industry is colossal, but there\u2019s also a specific market within the games industry that is becoming too big to be ignored: e-sports. E-sports is the competitive element of video gaming, with amateur and professional competitions played in various games and genres. Since e-sports requires a player vs player (PVP) element, certain genres of game, mainly those with competitive multiplayer elements, are far more suited to having thriving e-sports scenes.<\/p>\n

Some of the most popular e-sports games in China include the famous PC multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) League of Legends (LoL), mobile-based Honour of Kings, and the mobile battle royale Game for Peace, which is the official Chinese version of PlayerUnknown\u2019s Battlegrounds (PUBG). Tencent now operates all three of these games (Riot Games, which developed and published LoL in 2009, has been fully owned by Tencent since 2015), so they have a clear incentive to invest in the growth of the e-sports industry in China.<\/p>\n

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To give a little context on these game genres, MOBA games tend to pit two teams of five players against each other in matches that last an average of around 30 minutes. Battle royales, on the other hand, include up to 100 players in direct combat, and teams of four fight to eliminate one another until only one team remains. If you\u2019ve heard of Fortnite, then you\u2019ve heard of a battle royale game, with Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone being other popular options.<\/p>\n

For an idea of how popular Honour of Kings is in China, data taken from China\u2019s five largest live streaming<\/a> websites showed that in 2021, a monthly average of 781,000 people streamed Honour of Kings gameplay, while an average of 1.8 million daily comments were made on the game\u2019s broadcasts.<\/p>\n