Summertime just ended, and in China, most everything is back to normal, with kids going to school and people traveling for vacations around the country. For gaming, this year seems to get better and better, as we'll explain in this blog post.

We're lucky enough to have two significant reports released this past few weeks, one from our friends at Gamma Data in Beijing, and our friends at Niko Partners. It's all very fascinating news to look at, but let's get started by getting into the numbers.

August continues the growth that has been going on all year with over 17.78 billion RMB flooding the market. This is a 4% increase from last month. The trend of "King of Honor" and "PUBG Mobile" staying as the #1 and #2 game in China is going to continue for the next few months as revenues between the two far exceed the rest of the top 10.

Cocos games continue to hit the top 10 as well with "The Marvelous Snail (最强蜗牛)" and "Three Kingdoms: Fantasyland ( 三国志幻想大陆 )" hitting the charts. You can see some of the gameplay for "The Marvelous Snail" in our recent showcase!

New games fail to grab an audience

When we talk about the Chinese game industry, the numbers can get pretty huge compared to other countries. One of these examples is the number of monthly users you'll need to stay relevant and profitable. In China, a AAA mobile game must have 10 million MAU in its release month to show it can succeed

With 21 new games coming to the Apple Store this past month, only one stood out from the group and hit that number. The Cocos-built game "New Legend of the Condor Heroes: Iron and Blood (新射雕群侠传之铁血丹心)" was built by China Mobile and Chivalrous Culture. The game uses an IP from wuxia novels written in the 1950s that later became popular movies and TV shows in the following years. The novel is about war, brotherhood, and love during the Jin-Song wars.

The game is a card and SLG game that uses an ink painting style for their backgrounds and amazingly good music. We wrote a great article to show off the game and some of the fantastic things featured in it. If you know Chinese or are adventurous, we hope you check it out.

TV IP helps bring players to older games.

Speaking about IP, if you check out the top 10 list, an older game just came back after missing out for the past two years. "Crossfire mobile", the first big FPS game built in China, is climbing the charts thanks to an online TV show based on the game.

The show is more about the e-sports scene in China using Crossfire as their game of choice. The show has been a hit for many people enjoying the drama that comes with any sports-based tv show. Thanks to that, people have been flooding back to the game, and the revenues have brought an older game back into the public eye.

If you'd like to see the show, it's currently available on QQ Video.

Niko Partners shares fascinating numbers

Niko Partners just released its latest report on gamers in China on their website for purchase. A few of the big numbers coming from it are that most of the 720 million gamers are young, with 48% of gamers being women, with most gamers living outside the big cities.

They also made a great infographic to share a bit more about their research.