China Internet: China Online Gaming Industry Journal (May 2026 Edition)

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China Internet: China Online Gaming Industry Journal (May 2026 Edition)

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15 Jun 2026 15:00:03 ET │ 12 pages

China Internet

China Online Gaming Industry Journal (May 2026 Edition)

CITI'S TAKE

Nelson Cheung AC

Our May 2026 China Online Gaming Industry Journal’s notable highlights +852-2501-2728

include: 1) CNG Apr 2026 industry data; 2) game performance, new releases nelson.cheung@citi.com

and key beta progress for major A-share gaming companies. Our latest

pecking order: Century Huatong as preferred pick with highest earnings Alicia Yap, CFA

growth visibility in next 3 years > possible surprises in summer holiday +852-2501-2773

season such as Perfect World (NTE), Giant Network (Tomb Busters, Ming alicia.yap@citi.com

Jiang Sha) and Kingnet (Lie Yan Jue Xing) > enhancing total shareholder

return such as 37, G-Bits, XD (new HK$400mn automatic share buyback

program, link) > Kingsoft under restructuring overhang. As China online

gaming sector deepens its AI adoption throughout production value chain,

this should further support a resilient earnings outlook by more rapid

innovation and better comparable adv vs. overseas peers, in our view.

CNG Apr 2026 industry data read-through — On May 18, CNG released Apr 2026

China online gaming industry report which suggested China domestic online gaming

market reached a size of Rmb30.4bn in Apr 2026, +11.0/-3.5% yoy/mom driven by

patch updates by evergreen titles and incremental new game contribution. Mobile

game continued to grow 9.8% yoy and flat mom to Rmb22.4bn, driven by HoK, Delta

Force, Valorant Mobile, Roco Kingdom, HoK: World from Tencent and Neverness to

Everness (NTE) from Perfect World. PC game market grew 18.4% yoy yet -12.8% mom

to Rmb6.9bn driven by new skin sales from LoL (Tencent) and cross-platform titles