Another battlefield beyond mobile games: Over 300 products had a single - season revenue of over 10 million.

Text by | Guofu

Editor | Liu Shiwu

If 2023 was the year when mini - games started to rise and 2024 was the year of continuous explosion in products and the market, then in 2025, mini - games finally developed a mature ecological industrial chain.

On June 25, 2025, the annual WeChat Mini - game Developers Conference was successfully held in Liangjiang New Area, Chongqing.

At the conference, they announced a lot of important data about the mini - game field. In the past year, the online time of mini - game users increased by 10% year - on - year, and more than 80% of users started games through methods such as "pull - down, social, search". In terms of product R & D, 80% of the 400,000 mini - game developers are small teams with less than 30 people. Currently, nearly 70 games on the platform have reached one million DAU, and there are more than 300 products with a turnover of over ten million.

Meanwhile, the attractiveness of the mini - game ecosystem is gradually expanding. 70% of listed game companies have started to invest in this field. The Finnish game company Supercell also announced its official entry into the Chinese WeChat mini - game market. Their mobile game masterpiece "Clash Royale" is expected to officially launch on the WeChat mini - game platform in September this year.

It has to be said that this series of achievements are really amazing, but they also make many people re - recognize or have a deeper understanding of WeChat mini - games.

Imagine going back many years ago. When you first opened "Hopscotch", could you have imagined that WeChat mini - games would one day compete with the mobile game market in China?

This is not nonsense.

While people were still fiercely competing in the mobile game field, mini - games had expanded to a terrifying scale with an annual market size growth of 30%. The monthly active users exceeded 500 million, and the overlap rate with mobile game users was only 10%. They literally carved out a new path in the domestic market.

Moreover, different from mobile games, most users regard mini - games as an entertainment habit and have extremely high loyalty. According to official data, among the 500 million monthly active users in the past year, more than 80% of users would actively search for the mini - games they were playing through WeChat - specific channels such as pull - down, social, and search. On average, they would play 6 mini - games simultaneously every month, and the daily online time also increased by 10% compared to last year. And 70% of these players are sticky users across months, with high overall loyalty and high efficiency in recalling lost users.

Now, the platform can nurture many mini - games that have been stably operated for 7 years and have more than ten million monthly active users, which is inseparable from this characteristic.

Official sharing of the latest data

Of course, this entertainment habit does not mean just killing time. It could also be interacting with friends or achieving certain achievements in the game during fragmented time.

But no matter what the reason is, the "open and play" feature of WeChat mini - games does provide players with too many playing scenarios. The gradually mature product design can also continuously retain players, which ultimately enables them to achieve such remarkable results. That is to say, mini - games are actually more in line with the usage habits of most general users than mobile games.

Even more surprisingly, WeChat mini - games seem to produce blockbusters every once in a while, and some are completely unpredictable. A few years ago, "Sheep a Sheep" set off a storm on social networks. Later, you must have also heard of names like "Endless Winter", "Seek the Great Dao in the Myriad Worlds", and "Screw It".

There's no way around it. When a developer suddenly has a creative idea, the mini - game platform is probably the fastest way to verify it. When thousands of ideas collide, how can WeChat mini - games not find a potential hit? On the other hand, their investment in technology can also ensure the long - term and stable operation of many games, rather than "making a quick profit and leaving".

Therefore, the developer ecosystem of mini - games naturally attracts more attention. Currently, there are more than 400,000 developers on the mini - game platform in total, and more than 80% of them are small and medium - sized teams with less than 30 people. With more and more developers joining, WeChat mini - games can form a positive feedback loop.

Relatively speaking, to help everyone make better games, the mini - game team also provides assistance to developers from multiple dimensions such as technology, operation, and business.

For example, the WeChat mini - game platform has specially developed the LTVMax optimization tool, which users can use to achieve full - perspective optimization. At the same time, the platform's IAA mini - games will fully open the capacity expansion from 200M to 1G, reduce development restrictions, and continuously update a series of regulations and service specifications beneficial to developers.

In terms of business policies, WeChat mini - games also provide simultaneous release and user acquisition incentives for newly launched games. Eligible in - app purchase mini - games that are promoted on Tencent Ads can receive a consumption incentive of up to 25% and a maximum of three million upon launch.

That is to say, now WeChat mini - games and developers are on a win - win cooperation path, of course, on the premise that your creativity can withstand market verification.

After all, in this environment, more powerful and experienced developers will also choose to enter the market. The official said that now 70% of listed game companies have invested in WeChat mini - games. Their participation will not only quickly raise the average quality of WeChat mini - games to a higher level but also allow the official to see more diverse gameplay possibilities.

For example, after Supercell joined WeChat mini - games, its "Brawl Stars" and "Clash Royale" will successively launch on the mini - game platform. These mature commercialized mobile games are a strong stimulus to the existing developers in the mini - game market, forcing them to find more and more mature product possibilities.

Of course, some people have also broken out of the inertial thinking and explored other similar possibilities. For example, scenarios such as IP cooperation, PC mini - games, and video accounts have performed quite well in driving user data.

The WeChat mini - game IP cooperation platform currently has a library of over 200 high - quality IPs. This year, multiple IPs of Chongqing's cultural and tourism industry have also been launched on the WeChat mini - game IP cooperation platform, becoming the first collection of urban cultural and tourism IPs in the country. Multiple IP holders such as Tencent Video, Yuewen Group, Bilibili, and B.Duck also attended this year's WeChat Mini - game Developers Conference and shared some of their ideas after exploring mini - games.

The seamless switching between the PC and mobile ends makes the mini - game experience more immersive. The data announced at the conference shows that the activity of PC mini - games has increased by 55%, the business scale has expanded by 40%, and the user acquisition investment has increased by 4 times. The mini - game content on the video account is also becoming more and more popular among users. The viewing time of mini - game live broadcasts has increased by 54%, and the number of views of short videos has increased by 22%.

In addition, social interaction is part of the gameplay of WeChat mini - games. Relying on the social environment provided by WeChat, WeChat mini - games can easily enable interaction between players and their friends, forming a double - loop closed - loop within the mini - game and the WeChat ecosystem. For example, in "Three Kingdoms: Ice Age", players can freely assign invited friends to work, instantly breaking through the dimensional wall of the game.

The official said that the platform will gradually support components such as gifting virtual items and red envelopes, group PK, group tasks, sharing on the Moments, and search discovery in the future. If these functions are really implemented, the mini - game platform may become another social circle for WeChat friends to increase interaction and deepen their relationship.

Sharing on the social gameplay design of WeChat mini - games

On this basis, the rich functions of WeChat mini - games also make people think of more diverse possibilities. For example, Wang Yunwei, a rural teacher from Funing County, Yunnan, developed two products with the help of WeChat mini - games. One is used to teach students how to identify mushrooms and whether they are poisonous, and the other uses a game - based form to guide rural children to recite stories.

Looking back later, the effect of doing so is really good.

Because his idea fits the WeCare public welfare program of the WeChat mini - game team, Wang Yunwei also received a lot of technical and financial support and jointly promoted the "A Lesson for Children" project with the official. He also said in his sharing at the conference that the continuous support made the impossible possible. After all, while their peers are struggling in online games, rural children may not even have the opportunity to learn how to turn on a computer. "The real value of donations is not just the donated equipment, but to give rural education the root system for self - growth."

Sharing by rural teacher Wang Yunwei

It is worth mentioning that at the conference, the WeChat mini - game team also announced the further upgrade of the WeCare public welfare program. On July 1, 2025, the public welfare donation ability and the exclusive feedback incentive mechanism will be opened to all developers. In July last year, the WeCare program was comprehensively upgraded, encouraging and joining hands with mini - game developers to do good in the fields of technology, education, culture, etc.

During the previous upgrade test period, 32 developers had donated more than one million yuan in total through the "A Science and Technology Lesson for Children" project.

Perhaps it is these designs that better reflect that WeChat mini - games are not just games but bonds connecting people.

This article is from the WeChat official account "36Kr Games".