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The emerging Chinese gaming industry sees improved influence and shares in the overseas market, meaning “Chinese characters” and “Chinese stories” are now more recognized by international players.

In recent years, a growing number of Chinese game developers have joined global industry leaders to take part in international gaming exhibitions. To produce quality games and actively explore the overseas market has become a consensus for most domestic gaming companies.

The gaming industry is hitting a bottleneck in the Chinese market due to the fierce competition and the country’s strict control over the total number of games permitted. In addition, with Tencent and NetEase, two sizeable Chinese game developers and operators, occupying nearly 70 percent of the market in China, the overseas market no doubt offers a larger space for Chinese gaming companies.

According to a half-year report issued earlier this month, the overseas revenue of China’s self-developed games hit $5.6 billion in the first six months of this year, increasing 20.2 percent from a year ago and outrunning the domestic revenue increase.

Thanks to the improved quality and publishing capability of domestic companies, China’s self-developed mobile games delivered outstanding performance in each major global market, taking relatively high market shares.

North America, Japan and Western Europe, three regions that have long enjoyed sound development of the gaming industry, were the top three export destinations of Chinese games in the first half of this year.

“The overseas revenue of China’s gaming industry reached $9.6 billion last year, marking that the country has become a major exporter of games,” said Sun Shoushan, chairman of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association at the China Digital Entertainment Congress held at the beginning of this month.

The rapid advances made by Chinese game developers, especially in the mobile gaming industry, have greatly improved the share and influence of Chinese games in the global market, Sun added.

In the past five years, the overseas revenue of the Chinese gaming industry increased by nearly 15 times. Among 23 listed gaming companies that have reported foreign revenue of over 100 million yuan, seven saw a growth of more than 80 percent, and 14 saw an increase of over 40 percent.

Perfect World, one of the earliest Chinese gaming enterprises to test the waters in the overseas market, has entered over 100 countries and regions in America, Europe and Asia, setting up more than 20 branches in the US, the Netherlands, France, South Korea and Japan.

The overseas performance of Chinese gaming enterprises not only helps the industry maintain rapid and stable growth, but also creates a new model for China to export its traditional culture.

For instance, the mobile game Ink, Mountains and Mystery developed by NetEase and the Palace Museum was inspired by the famous landscape painting A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains. It has been recommended by multiple app stores in North America, the UK, France and Australia, enjoying massive popularity among foreign players.