UGC：Reaping the biggest dividends from AI, is it also the ultimate weapon to counter AI?

Recently, an analysis from law firm Taylor Wessing pointed out that although the global gaming industry returned to the growth track in 2025, the prosperity of the entire industry has not arrived, and the chill has not subsided.

In 2025, venture capital and private equity investment in the gaming industry decreased by 55%. The proportion of new content investment in the industry's net income dropped to the lowest point in seven years. Layoffs continued. Although the scale was smaller than in previous years, 9,000 jobs were still cut in 2025, bringing the total number of layoffs in four years to 44,000. Despite a 40% increase in player spending last year and manufacturers' continuous cost - cutting, the industry's profit margin did not grow compared to 2019.

Matthew Ball, a senior industry observer, pointed out sharply in the "Current State of Video Games" report that the growth of the gaming industry in the past two years has only been brought about by a few countries/regions with excellent performance such as China. Most Western companies have not only failed to contribute to growth but are in continuous decline.

Data shows that the Chinese market currently accounts for 20% of global gaming consumption but contributes 38% of global gaming growth, far exceeding other regions in the world. In China, 84% of consumption flows to domestic games, and Chinese game developers have also performed very well in the international market, with their share in non - Chinese markets increasing to 24%.

Data shows that out of the $9.7 billion growth in the global gaming industry in 2025, about $6.9 billion was contributed by Chinese publishers (accounting for 71%). Most Western game developers/publishers basically did not contribute to the growth of the overall gaming market.

Impact of AI, UGC Becomes One of the Few Growth Points

Regarding the stagnant growth in the Western market, Taylor Wessing analysis believes that the rapid popularity of new forms of interactive entertainment has taken away players' attention and consumption expenditure, especially among young people aged 18 - 34 and men of all ages. These new competitors include artificial intelligence applications, social media videos, etc.

TikTok - In the United States alone, its users' usage time has increased by 39 million hours per day compared to 2020 (reaching 102 million hours per day). It is not just eroding the market share of direct competitors such as YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook but is mostly seizing the incremental market and satisfying a large amount of players' needs for social interaction and instant gratification.

OnlyFans - In 2019, the total global expenditure on OnlyFans was less than $250 million, but by 2025, this figure had soared to over $7.5 billion, with the United States alone accounting for $5 billion. It has met a large amount of male players' consumption demand for pornographic content.

AI - AI applications are seizing a large amount of players' time in an overwhelming manner. The daily usage time of products such as Character AI is approaching or even exceeding that of mainstream games. Players are more willing to engage in AI chat, creation, and role - playing. Compared with the fixed processes of traditional games, AI interaction is more free and more novel, resulting in a decrease in the frequency of players opening games, a continuous squeeze on game time, and a significant shift in attention.

The new forms of entertainment are reshaping the gaming industry, especially the impact of AI is huge. According to Taylor Wessing's analysis, the only growth track under the impact of AI may be UGC platform - type products.

Among overseas UGC products, Roblox is a representative. Data shows that Roblox accounted for 4.5% of the growth in industry consumption expenditure outside China last year and has contributed 60% of the industry's net growth since 2021. By the end of 2025, its daily active users are expected to exceed 150 million, with an average monthly usage time of 13 billion hours, approaching that of Netflix. In 2025, the creator's share exceeded $1.5 billion, a year - on - year increase of 70%.

Fortnite has also maintained growth. In 2024, the number of creators increased to 70,000, and the proportion of UGC time accounted for 36%. In 2025, the number of experiences doubled, and the proportion of time accounted for 40%, with the creators' income being about $370 million. At the end of the year, the UGC game "Steal the Brainrot" became the first UGC work to exceed one million CCU (concurrent users). With Fortnite officially returning to the Google Play store and supporting third - party payments, the game is expected to continue to grow this year.

In China, UGC has become an important engine for many games to expand their user base. At the just - ended 2026 GDC Conference, teams from Tencent's "Peacekeeper Elite", miHoYo's "Genshin Impact: Realm of Thousand Stars", and NetEase's "League of Legends: Wild Rift" mobile game shared their product layouts in the UGC field.

The UGC platform "Oasis Origin" of "Peacekeeper Elite" basically represents the top - level ecosystem of domestic UGC platforms. During the Spring Festival in 2026, the game officially announced that the DAU of "Oasis Origin" exceeded 58 million, reaching a new milestone.

Data from 2025 shows that the cumulative number of plays on "Oasis Origin" exceeded 20 billion, with over 150,000 gameplay modes and maps launched. The annual incentive fund exceeded 100 million yuan, with the highest income of a single team exceeding 5 million yuan. The monthly turnover of the top single gameplay mode reached 5 million yuan, and the highest commercial share was 30%. The cumulative number of plays of a single popular map could exceed 200 million times, and the playback volume of related topics exceeded 2.1 billion.

miHoYo also disclosed the data of the "Realm of Thousand Stars" UGC module of "Genshin Impact" in its speech at GDC 2026. This module was launched in October 2025 and attracted more than 30,000 creators globally within three months, with the cumulative number of plays exceeding 150 million. Relying on the global users and art assets of "Genshin Impact", creators can quickly produce various gameplay modes such as action, MOBA, and puzzle - solving in the game. The official launched an incentive plan to increase the income of the game's UGC mode both at home and abroad, forming a global UGC creation and dissemination network.

NetEase's "Egg Party", "League of Legends: Wild Rift" mobile game, and "Minecraft: China Edition" are also representative games in the UGC field.

As of 2025, the number of creators of "Egg Party" exceeded 50 million, with more than 100 million original maps. The cumulative playing time in the park was nearly 2.8 billion hours. The platform implemented a 100% share + 100 - million - yuan subsidy policy. In 2025, the cash incentive exceeded 100 million yuan. Nearly 100,000 maps were commercialized, and more than 50,000 authors benefited, with the highest income of a single person approaching 100,000 yuan. The income of a single popular map was nearly 5 million yuan.

As a mature sandbox UGC platform, as of the end of 2025, "Minecraft: China Edition" had more than 300,000 active developers, with a cumulative creation of more than 500,000 components, and the total UGC download volume exceeded 10 billion. The total number of players exceeded 800 million, and the maximum concurrent users were more than 1.25 million. The developers' cumulative share exceeded 1.6 billion yuan. During the Spring Festival, a reform of the sharing rules and an incentive plan were launched, and the sales volume of mods increased by 150% year - on - year, forming a stable "creation - monetization - reproduction" cycle.

Use AI to Counter the Impact of AI?

Whether at home or abroad, UGC has become a new business growth point in the stagnant era. Especially for long - running games with a large user base and years of operation, the UGC module is a good entry point to activate the game's vitality and attract Generation Z and Generation Alpha players.

The non - standard and youth - oriented co - creation model can help long - standing games better expand their user base, make the IP image deeply rooted in players' hearts, and establish a strong emotional connection during long - term companionship, ultimately completing the generational change of players. This is happening both in China and overseas.

In addition to benefiting from the youthfulness of players, another dividend that UGC is enjoying is AI.

One of the reasons for the previous success of UGC is that it has greatly lowered the threshold for ordinary players to create. It is much easier for players to create in a mature game using tools such as an editor than to learn game code or engine technology and start game creation from scratch. The widespread popularity of AI applications has further lowered this creation threshold.

"Peacekeeper Elite" announced four sets of AI - driven UGC workflows at this year's GDC, covering AI block building, AI characters + motion capture, AI 3D scene generation, and 2D line drawing to 3D relief conversion. It supports one - click generation of playable content from text/pictures and zero - code, zero - basis creation of complex maps/gameplay, aiming to break the impossible triangle of "low threshold, high quality, and high efficiency" in UGC creation.

"League of Legends: Wild Rift" mobile game also shared AI - driven UGC tools at GDC. After the launch of its "AI crew mode", the median creation time for a single short - video content was only 54 seconds, with 5 million daily plays in the game. The playback volume of the "#Crew Mode#" on Douyin exceeded 10 billion, driving the total playback volume of mobile - game - related videos to 200 billion. Players' self - made short dramas had an annual income of more than 100 million yuan.

It can be seen that after being empowered by AI, the UGC production of Chinese games not only continues to lower the creation threshold for players but also greatly improves the creation efficiency, expands the application scenarios of UGC (transforming the game into a short - video "studio"), and timely opens up the commercialization path, making it easier for players to earn real - money income.

In the past two years, AI has had a significant impact on the entire gaming industry. AI is not only competing for hardware resources and taking away programmers' jobs but also squeezing players' entertainment time. When AI replaces everything, where will traditional games go?

The accelerated development of UGC provides a way out: that is, to use AI to improve its own capabilities to counter the impact brought by AI.

Compared with AI comic dramas, AI short - video creation, or various AI - based "one - person companies", UGC entrepreneurship has several natural advantages. A mature UGC platform not only has ready - made players, ready - made tools, but also ready - made opportunities.

There is no copyright for gameplay. UGC creation does not need to be completely original. Re - creating a popular gameplay from another platform on your own platform can also earn some money. For example, the "Steal a Brainrot" map that was popular on Roblox can also make money when introduced into Fortnite. Every popular gameplay is worth re - creating continuously.

With the support of AI, this replicable success becomes more efficient. Less competition, smoother monetization channels, and a younger and more stable audience: these are the unique advantages of UGC and the reasons why UGC can still grow rapidly in the AI era.

However, the window period for UGC will not last forever. When the traditional gaming industry fully adjusts and the AI - based productivity is completely restructured, the traditional gaming industry will also see an explosion. At that time, the attention to UGC may decline. There will also be more intense competition among major UGC platforms. However, for players who create on specific UGC platforms, these are the concerns of the giants.

This article is from the WeChat public account “Game Matrix GameMatrix” (ID: gamematrix2