Market Intelligence
China market
China is a concentration problem, not a “growth story.” Esports users sat at 495 million in both the 2025 People’s Daily citation and the H1 2026 industry report. Revenue is large, platform-intense, and policy-sensitive. Do not import a Western media-rights brief unchanged.
Figures are named-publisher estimates. Confirm the original table before using them in paid work. Aglima did not produce these measurements.
01
Market snapshot
Revenue
13.115CNY bn
Industry revenue
2026 H1
China Report / 2026 Jan–Jun China Esports Industry Report
User base
495million users
User base
2026 H1
China Report / 2026 Jan–Jun China Esports Industry Report
Revenue
29.331CNY bn
Industry revenue
2025
People’s Daily
User base
495million users
User base
2025
People’s Daily
2025 full year (People’s Daily) vs 2026 first half (China Report). Not a like-for-like growth rate.
People’s Daily
29.331 CNY bn
2025 · Industry revenue · Full-year 2025 China esports revenue. Cited as the world’s largest esports market that year.
China Report / 2026 Jan–Jun China Esports Industry Report
13.115 CNY bn
2026 H1 · Industry revenue · First-half 2026 industry revenue, China. Not a full-year global USD figure.
| Source | Value | Year |
|---|---|---|
| People’s Daily | 29.331 CNY bn | 2025 |
| China Report / 2026 Jan–Jun China Esports Industry Report | 13.115 CNY bn | 2026 H1 |
02
Demand drivers
- People’s Daily: 2025 revenue 29.331 billion yuan; China cited as the world’s largest esports market that year.
- China Report: H1 2026 revenue 13.115 billion yuan; 495 million users at end-June 2026.
- Live platforms and publishers sit closer to the user than a Western league-rights stack.
- Regulatory sensitivity is a demand driver, not a footnote.
03
Buyer behavior
- Scale is already here. The 495 million user print repeating across 2025 and H1 2026 is a saturation signal until a new definition appears.
- Conversion happens inside domestic platforms. Cross-border creative that ignores that stack is decoration.
04
Revenue model
- Events, publishers, live streaming, and sponsorship inside a domestic ecosystem.
- Do not convert yuan prints to USD on-page without stating the FX date. We have not.
05
Strategic implications
- Briefs need a China platform map before a media plan.
- Treat H1 revenue as a half-year observation. Do not double it.
06
What this means for marketers
- Partnerships: publishers and live platforms before imported league metaphors.
- Content: local format and platform grammar.
- Risk: policy can remove a channel faster than a campaign cycle.
07
Risk factors
- Half-year vs full-year confusion.
- User-base definition (player vs viewer) is not in the cited lines.
08
Sources and methodology
| Source | Year | Kind | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| China Report / 2026 Jan–Jun China Esports Industry ReportTrade | 2026 H1 | Revenue | First-half 2026 industry revenue, China. Not a full-year global USD figure. |
| China Report / 2026 Jan–Jun China Esports Industry ReportTrade | 2026 H1 | User base | Esports users in China at end-June 2026. |
| People’s DailyNews | 2025 | Revenue | Full-year 2025 China esports revenue. Cited as the world’s largest esports market that year. |
| People’s DailyNews | 2025 | User base | China esports users, 2025. Same 495 million level as the H1 2026 China Report figure. |