Is there still a chance for small and medium-sized teams in the mini-game track that big companies are "scrambling" for?

As one of the largest single gaming markets globally, what makes the Chinese gaming market interesting is that just when everyone thinks it has become quite saturated, numerous developers can always break through in a new way.

Among them, the mini - game market, which has emerged prominently in recent years, has undoubtedly attracted the most attention.

The "2024 China Game Industry Report" shows that in the past year, the revenue of the domestic mini - program game market reached 39.836 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 99.18%. According to the official sharing of WeChat mini - games, mini - games currently have a stable monthly active user base of 500 million, and the overlap between these players and the mobile game market is only 10%.

In just seven years, the mini - game market has caught up with the mobile game market that has been developing for over two decades and opened up a large number of new users for the market.

Important time nodes in the development of mini - games

Undoubtedly, the success of mini - games is definitely inseparable from the accumulation of the mobile market over the years. However, the two core characteristics of mini - games cannot be ignored either. On the one hand, it relies on various social platforms, is easy to start and can be played immediately, and has strong social fission and dissemination attributes. On the other hand, the development difficulty of mini - games is not as high as that of mobile games, with lower costs and more room for trial and error.

Such a "tasty piece of cake" naturally attracts leading companies to enter the market.

Currently, 70% of listed game companies have started to invest and layout in the mini - game field. For example, "Endless Winter" by Century Huatong and "Searching for the Great Path" by 37 Interactive Entertainment are now iconic products at the top of the mini - game market. Abroad, Supercell, which is popular globally, has also ported "Brawl Stars" and "Clash Royale" to the WeChat mini - game platform.

Endless stream of hit games

However, for creators, "getting better and better" doesn't seem to be entirely good news, especially in the mini - game market where small and medium - sized teams account for 80%.

01 Big companies enter the market, and the situation changes

With the entry of big companies, the most obvious change is that the R & D and operation costs of mini - games have increased significantly.

In the initial mini - game market, it was basically "creativity wins". At least one hit product would emerge every year, such as "Merge Big Watermelon", "Summon the Dragon", "Sheep a Sheep", etc.

Their composition logic is basically the same as that of early mobile games - simple architecture, addictive gameplay, and suitable for fragmented time. The subsequent development of mobile games is obvious to all: with the development of technology, games have become larger and larger, and the addictive small gameplay has finally been replaced by in - depth content, meeting the long - term experience needs of users.

Mini - games also have a similar development path. In the past two years, simple creative gameplay can no longer satisfy mini - game users. They focus more on products that combine "creative gameplay + mature categories". For example, "Endless Winter" mentioned above is a combination of creative survival and SLG gameplay, while "Searching for the Great Path" is a combination of tree - cutting and idle mobile games.

That is to say, for development teams to create competitive products, they can no longer rely solely on addictive creativity. Instead, they must use creativity to package mature mobile game gameplay and adapt it to the mini - game ecosystem. As a result, the development costs of small and medium - sized teams have increased geometrically.

For example, after "Sheep a Sheep" became popular, it also added a regional score ranking system, using social interaction to drive players to play repeatedly. Their new game "Have a Meal" has introduced more art content packaging on this basis, such as costumes and level themes.

The social fission attribute of mini - games

On the other hand, with the intensification of competition, the marginal benefit of pure creativity is decreasing. Multiple new mini - games with similar gameplay often appear simultaneously, especially since mini - games are small in size and have a shorter development cycle. A few years ago, a product with creative gameplay might have gained hundreds of thousands of users through organic traffic, but now it's difficult to break through the 100,000 mark.

In terms of marketing and promotion, large companies with experience, channels, and financial support obviously have more advantages.

For example, the first - half report of 37 Interactive Entertainment in 2024 shows that the company's Internet traffic expenses reached 5.36 billion yuan at that time, of which 5 billion was used for user acquisition, and most of this capital was used for the promotion of "Searching for the Great Path", "Unknown", and "Time Grocery Store". Just "Searching for the Great Path" cost 3.04 billion yuan. For small and medium - sized teams, such a high customer acquisition cost is unimaginable.

If we go into more detail, they face more problems besides creativity, such as how to establish a good in - game commercial cycle and how to design a more interesting long - term experience to retain users.

02 A new bond is being established between R & D and distribution

So, do small and medium - sized teams have no chance at all? Not necessarily.

First of all, it should be clear that small and medium - sized teams are still an important part of the mini - game market and an indispensable part of building the platform ecosystem. Therefore, for small and medium - sized teams to seize opportunities in the face of difficulties, what they really need to do is learn how to "leverage".

For example, in order to incubate more competitive products, companies such as Tencent, ByteDance, and Kuaishou have increased their capital investment on their own platforms and provided corresponding cooperation content for developers.

In June this year, ByteDance's platform, OceanEngine, held mini - game industry salons in Wuhan and Chengdu successively, offering a series of policies such as rebate subsidies, 1:1 platform capital allocation, advertising support, and technical support, and further strengthening the existing incentive plan. Based on the Douyin platform, development teams can reduce a large part of the costs in promotion and marketing.

Source: OceanEngine

Similarly, Kuaishou has integrated short dramas, games, novels and other content - based products, established a content consumption business center, and provided assistance to developers based on the platform ecosystem. Last year, the peak daily commercial consumption of their mini - games reached 12 million yuan.

In addition, mobile phone manufacturers are also building an ecosystem around mini - game teams and products. For example, companies such as Xiaomi and OPPO provide "full - scenario distribution" services for developers. This is a natural - flow distribution model different from user acquisition. The negative first screen, browser, game center, and theme store of mobile phones will all become exposure scenarios for mini - games, and games will be distributed to corresponding users in a targeted manner.

As an important development engine for domestic mini - games, in addition to providing distribution services for small and medium - sized teams, Unity officially built a dedicated technology and marketing team for the mini - game business around the "Thousand Sails Plan" in the past year, providing guidance and assistance for product development and commercial design.

Source: Unity China

For example, in terms of game design, they have set up a complete set of code adaptation solutions. Development teams only need to write Unity code, and the official team can help them convert the game into a code form suitable for multiple mini - game platforms such as WeChat and Douyin.

Source: Unity China

In other words, Unity China directly provides a certain amount of technical and human support for development teams.

For the game "Balloon Breakout Battle" they are responsible for distributing, they not only greatly revised the long - term level design of the game but also redesigned the commercial plan in a targeted manner, making this overseas game suitable for the domestic environment.

Another extreme case is the game "Abyss of Illusions" they are responsible for distributing. With only one developer, Unity China provided technical optimization and commercial design and helped this product achieve a monthly turnover of 300,000 yuan.

It can be said that the platform ecosystem jointly built by multiple parties can provide basic guarantees for small and medium - sized teams in multiple dimensions from technology to distribution. Even if small and medium - sized teams do not compete with leading games with large - scale resources, they can still get a share in the booming mini - game field.

This also makes many developers realize the importance of "forming a closer relationship with distributors".

03 Find the right direction in the rapids

In fact, the real opponents of small and medium - sized teams are not leading big companies or those mini - games with high user - acquisition investment, but the impact of traditional and mature mobile game content.

The composition of mini - games is actually quite similar to that of early mobile games. Classic products such as "Temple Run", "Subway Surfers", and "Angry Birds" are also small - scale, casual, and highly transmissible products with addictive gameplay. Therefore, many senior mobile game developers have turned to the mini - game field to find new opportunities, and much of the existing mobile game content will directly affect mini - game products. For example, most of the mainstream leading mini - games are occupied by SLG.

Therefore, much of the existing mobile game content will directly affect mini - games. For example, the current mainstream leading mini - games are mainly based on SLG gameplay, and they also emphasize expressiveness and content volume more and more.

Many existing mobile games are also being gradually ported to the mini - game platform. For example, Perfect World cooperated with Unity China to launch mini - game versions of "Zhu Xian Mobile Game" and "Tian Long Ba Bu 2". Zhang Junbo, the CEO of Unity China, said that except for a few particularly difficult ones, they can now basically port most traditional mobile games to the mini - game platform.

Mini - game version of "Zhu Xian Mobile Game"

As the most commonly used development engine for both domestic mobile games and mini - games, Unity has already accumulated in - depth understanding of the technologies of the two platforms. This year, they also launched the Unity Engine in the Chinese market. In the future, there may be more targeted possibilities in dual - platform development, porting, and even interconnection. The Unite 2025 conference held on October 23rd and 24th this year may reveal more information related to mini - games.

Of course, based on the characteristics of strong social interaction and high dissemination, the development paths of mini - games and mobile games are not exactly the same.

For example, the social fission of "Sheep a Sheep" is inseparable from the game's easy - to - share and play - immediately attributes. At this year's WeChat mini - game conference, many developers shared the user ecosystem they built in terms of social interaction. This kind of ecosystem, which is similar to MMO but more convenient, will probably be an important difference between the development of mini - games and mobile games in the future.

For small and medium - sized teams themselves, perhaps researching and achieving innovative breakthroughs based on technology and the characteristics of mini - games is the optimal solution at present. Even better, if they can fit in with some characteristics of the platform, they can even drive new possibilities for domestic social platforms. As Wang Wei, the person in charge of Unity China's game business distribution, said, they hope that developers can focus more on gameplay creativity and the game itself and leave the links such as technical optimization, commercial monetization, and platform access to professional distribution teams.

After all, creativity is the proof of the vitality of small and medium - sized teams. "If there is a gold mountain in front, what a small boat needs to do is not to compete with an aircraft carrier in speed but to find its own course."

This article is from "36Kr Games".