Mini-game user acquisition data in the first half of the year: daily expenditure exceeds 176 million yuan, 9377 and Dalong Mengtu lead the investment, and more than 43,000 mini-games participate in the investment.
DataEye "H1 2026 Mini-Game User Acquisition Data Report" is officially released today.
01
Estimated Market Size of the Mini-Game Industry
Calculations from DataEye Research Institute show that the domestic mini-game market continues to maintain rapid growth. It is projected that the mini-game market size will exceed 74.5 billion yuan in 2026, representing a year-on-year increase of over 22%.
The overall mini-game market continues to expand positively, with core growth coming from the following aspects:
First, innovative niche categories are constantly emerging, and high-quality product supply drives the overall expansion of the industry;
Second, long-term operation has become the standard for leading manufacturers, significantly extending the lifecycle of mini-game products;
Third, the implementation of AI technology reduces costs and increases efficiency, continuously improving the profitability of manufacturers.
In addition, the concentration of leading industry manufacturers continues to rise, and market resources are increasingly concentrated in leading enterprises with independent R&D capabilities, refined operation capabilities, and multi-channel full-scenario layout capabilities.
02
Overview of User Acquisition in the Mini-Game Industry
(1) Daily direct investment spending on mini-game user acquisition reaches 176 million yuan, with pure IAA mini-games accounting for 16%
Calculations from DataEye Research Institute show that the current total daily direct investment spending on mini-games across the three major domestic advertising media platforms is approximately 179 million yuan, an increase of about 26% compared to the same period last year.
Among them, the daily advertising spending on IAA mini-games across the three platforms is about 34.1 million yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 47%. By platform, the estimated daily direct investment spending on mini-games for the three mainstream advertising platforms is 17.74 million yuan, 11.56 million yuan, and 4.8 million yuan respectively.
Comparisons with historical data show that the growth in IAA category advertising is very prominent. On one hand, a large number of innovative and modified categories have been derived from traditional basic gameplay such as match-3 and tower defense, for example, sand painting match-3, bead puzzle match-3, word-based tower defense, etc.; on the other hand, AI tools deeply penetrate the entire chain of mini-game advertising, greatly improving the efficiency of IAA category traffic boosting, material production, and advertising optimization.
(2) Over 43,000 mini-games were in operation in H1, and Douyin mini-games maintained rapid growth
In H1 2026, the total number of mini-games in operation on WeChat and Douyin platforms is about 43,000, a year-on-year increase of 24.4%. The growth rate of WeChat mini-games has slowed down significantly, and the industry has gradually entered a stage of in-depth cultivation of existing users.
Currently, WeChat mini-games are the core carrier for medium-to-heavy paid mini-games, but the slowdown in growth does not mean the market size is shrinking. The core reason is that the supply of low-efficiency products is being cleared at an accelerated pace. The competitive logic of the WeChat mini-game industry has also changed, from competing for new users in the early incremental stage to fighting for existing market share, and the revenue of leading products continues to rise.
In H1 2026, the number of Douyin mini-games in operation exceeded 20,000, maintaining a high growth rate for two consecutive years, indicating that there is still room for growth on this platform. Platform dividends have not disappeared, new development teams and cross-track manufacturers continue to enter the market. In the short term, the number of games in operation will still maintain high growth, and the industry reshuffle cycle will be longer.
(3) The total volume of the two platforms continues to expand, and the pattern of mini-game advertising materials has reversed
In H1 2026, the total number of mini-game advertising materials on WeChat and Douyin platforms exceeded 26.8 million, a year-on-year increase of nearly 30%. The overall intensity of user acquisition and advertising in the industry continues to increase, and material production capacity has seen explosive growth.
However, the growth rates of the two platforms are significantly differentiated: WeChat mini-game material advertising only increased by 12.87% year-on-year, with a significantly narrowed growth rate, further confirming that WeChat mini-games have entered a stock competition cycle; the total number of Douyin mini-game advertising materials in H1 exceeded 16 million, with a year-on-year growth rate of 43%, entering a stable expansion stage after rapid growth.
03
Category Advertising Observation
(1) Light casual categories account for over 70%, and composite gameplay becomes the core of advertising growth
In H1 2026, the gameplay advertising pattern of WeChat mini-games is stable, and there has been no essential change in the industry's product structure.
Light casual categories such as casual, match-3, and puzzle games have a total of 15,000 games in operation, accounting for more than 70% of the total platform advertising. Among them, the number of match-3 games in operation increased by about 10% month-on-month. Fusion match-3 products are the core source of growth, and sorting match-3 gameplay such as sand painting match-3 and bead puzzle match-3 has become a new product development path for the match-3 track.
The number of shooting gameplay advertisements increased by nearly 5% month-on-month. The light sniper product Sniper Alien became a hit, driving a large number of similar gameplay products to enter the market. The potential of the female user market continues to be released, and the advertising growth of the light dress-up niche category is remarkable. "Basic popular gameplay + female-oriented content integration" has become the mainstream innovation idea: relying on universal low-threshold gameplay to reduce customer acquisition costs, while using female-oriented content to improve user retention and payment conversion, to offset the continuously rising user acquisition costs.
The management gameplay category has seen a severe decline, mainly because pure farm, restaurant, and city-building simulation management categories face fierce internal competition, with single gameplay having low advertising revenue and poor payment conversion. A large number of management manufacturers have transformed to develop composite products such as match-3 management and female story-driven management, and the advertising of original pure management products continues to shrink.
(2) Over 7,000 modern-themed games are in operation, with war and Three Kingdoms themed games increasing by 10%
In H1 2026, the theme advertising hierarchy of WeChat mini-games is clear. The modern theme leads by a large margin, while the number of traditional heavy-themed products such as martial arts, xianxia, and fantasy games has shrunk slightly. In H1, the number of modern-themed games in operation is close to 7,000, with a month-on-month advertising increase of over 5%, making it the most stable basic track in the industry. This trend also reflects that under the current regulatory policy orientation, products using the IAA monetization mode are more inclined to choose modern themes with lower review risks.
The advertising scale of war and Three Kingdoms themes has increased significantly. Products such as City Master have outstanding market revenue performance, driving the popularity of light RTS gameplay to rise, and continuously attracting manufacturers and developers to enter the market.
As a mature and long-established paid track, the number of Legend-themed advertising products has only increased slightly by 1.15%. The track relies on the payment base of the sinking market to support its scale, but the industry's growth ceiling is emerging. It only relies on existing old servers and light derivative products to maintain the current market size, leaving very limited new growth space.
04
Hot Track Observation
(1) Tower Defense: The volume of materials and the number of games in operation continue to rise, and there are still market opportunities for fusion TD games
In H1 2026, the overall user acquisition advertising scale of the tower defense track continued to rise: from January to February, affected by the Spring Festival traffic fluctuations, manufacturers generally adopted a staggered advertising strategy and actively reduced their budgets; from March to May, advertising budgets continued to rise, and the advertising scale dropped significantly in June, with most manufacturers concentrating their advertising budgets on the summer traffic window from July to August.
The number of games in operation in the track has a small fluctuation range, and the overall pattern is stable, but the market concentration of leading products continues to increase. Gameplay fusion and IP collaboration have become the core breakthrough points for products to break through market boundaries.
In terms of benchmark products, Eternal Blue Planet had frequent advertising activities in H1, signing Jay Chou as its spokesperson. Brand marketing has become a new direction for fierce competition among leading tower defense products; the market performance of Zombie Siege remains strong, and the classic target-like gameplay still has stable market competitiveness.
On the new product side, innovative fusion tower defense games have received widespread market attention: the new product Infinite Reincarnation from Dameng Longtu integrates micro-horror themes and search-and-fight level-breaking elements, with outstanding market performance in H1; Zhao Yun and A Dou, launched in June, innovated word-spelling tower defense gameplay and gained market popularity. Overall, the tower defense track still has sufficient growth opportunities.
(2) Simulation Management: "Flower-planting" simulation management dominates the track, with obvious changes in category patterns
In H1 2026, the total volume of advertising materials for the simulation management track hit its bottom in February, continued to rise from March to May, and dropped slightly in June; the total number of products in operation in the track fluctuated downward overall, but the material production capacity of a single product has doubled.
The pattern of leading products has changed significantly. My Garden World topped the track's material advertising list in H1, marking the official transformation of the simulation management track. Female-oriented simulation management has become the mainstream of the track, and the flower-planting niche track has risen strongly. Leading manufacturers such as 37 Interactive Entertainment and 4399 have already made layouts in this direction.
The popularity of survival and construction simulation management has also risen simultaneously. Crazy Water World ranks at the top of the track by relying on its differentiated game worldview and the advantage of AI mass-produced materials.
(3) Strategy SLG: The number of games in operation continues to rise, and lightweight gameplay layout may become a trend
In H1 2026, the total volume of advertising materials for the strategy SLG track fluctuated significantly: advertising shrank during the Spring Festival window from January to February, the market recovered from March to April, with the peak of monthly advertising materials reaching 246,000, and manufacturers significantly reduced their advertising budgets from May to June. However, the total number of games in operation in the track maintained an upward trend, and refined and targeted advertising has become the mainstream strategy for manufacturers.
The leading stock products are clearly solidified. Endless Winter and Three Kingdoms: Ice Age have long ranked top two in the track's advertising list, which also confirms that the medium-to-heavy user group of mini-games has strong stickiness and outstanding payment capacity.
In terms of new products, City Master successfully stood out, relying on short-turn-based territory-occupying light RTS battle gameplay to enter the top ten of the WeChat mini-game bestseller list, driving the entire industry to shift to the layout of lightweight, fast-paced light strategy tracks.
(4) Light Match-3: The light match-3 category grows steadily, and "sorting match-3" becomes a new growth point of the track
