China’s gaming industry is enjoying sustained growth – at home and abroad – in recent years.

The nation’s domestic market – the world’s largest by revenue – generated sales income last year of more than 350 billion yuan (US$50.7 billion) – a 7.68 per cent year‑on‑year growth, the “Annual Report on the Development of the Digital Gaming Industry in China 2025”, published by the China Audio‑Video and Digital Publishing Association, said. The number of gamers in the country also rose by 1.35 per cent to 683 million.

Home-grown games accounted for over 291 billion yuan in domestic sales, while overseas sales revenue reached US$20.45 billion last year – surpassing 100 billion yuan for the sixth consecutive year.

Games produced by Chinese companies are growing in popularity, not only within China, but also abroad. Leading titles over the past few years, including Game Science’s Black Myth: Wukong, FirstFun’s Last War: Survival, and Century Games’ Kingshot, have all been popular in the United States and Canada – with rankings in the top 10 for revenue on both the US Apple App Store and Google Play Store, Korea’s ChosunBiz website reported.

Simulation strategy games (SLGs) – where players immerse themselves in spectacular computer-generated role-playing environments while carrying out real-world tasks, such as long-term planning, tactical decision-making, resource management and warfare, while overcoming their opponents or challenges – is one of the genres enjoying a surge in popularity in recent few years.

It is now the second‑highest‑grossing genre among China’s top 100 mobile titles – accounting for more than 282 billion yuan last year – about 11 per cent of total mobile game revenue.

Globally, the segment’s market size reached US$15 billion last year and is projected to grow at a 12 per cent compound annual growth rate through 2033 – fuelled partly by the rising popularity of mobile gaming, increasingly competitive esports gameplay and growing social interaction, market research firm Data Insights Market has reported.

One Chinese simulation game enjoying global success is Three Kingdoms Tactics, set during the nation’s Three Kingdoms period (220–280 AD) – a time of fierce conflict and political intrigue involving three warring states battling for supremacy: Wei, in northern China, Shu, in southwest China, and Wu, south of the Yangtze River.

Three Kingdoms Tactics, launched in September 2019, is the flagship title of Lingxi Games, a leading digital gaming company focused on developing games which promote Chinese culture through storytelling that is deeply rooted in the nation’s rich history. The company is a subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding, the Chinese e-commerce giant that owns the South China Morning Post. Its portfolio also includes Three Kingdoms Fantasy Land and Ashes of the Kingdom.

The game topped the Apple App Store’s iOS Top Free Games chart on the first day of its release and continued to rank in the top spots during the first few months. Today, more than six years after its initial launch, Three Kingdoms Tactics remains one of the bestselling games on the iOS chart. In 2024, the game surpassed more than 100 million players worldwide – a milestone which solidifies its status as one of the most popular SLGs.

In the game, players must recruit characters, based on real Three Kingdoms figures, to join their coalition and devise strategies to expand their dominance on the battlefield and capture the capital city of Luoyang, which was the political and economic heart of China during that time period.

Chinese world champion short‑track speed skater Han Tianyu is one of the millions of loyal Three Kingdoms Tactics fans. Like many others, Han applies lessons he has learned from the game to his everyday life. For him, there are many parallels between the game and how he competes for his country around the world.

“My favourite character of the game, [the military general] Zhao Yun, is loyal, brave and always remains calm under pressure,” he says. “That’s very similar to what is required for athletes. From Zhao Yun I learned courage. Without it, I might not have dared to fight and break through.”

Han says Three Kingdoms Tactics has even influenced team dynamics, as he and his fellow skaters have often played the game together in their spare time.

“In relay racing, teamwork and tactics are crucial,” he says. “We are inspired by the strategies and methods we would use in the game, and apply them to when we compete. Through the game, our communication improves, along with our sense of camaraderie.”

Hong Kong marketing specialist Edmond Woo, who previously worked for brands like Vans and Nike, enjoys playing Three Kingdoms Fantasy Land. He says the game has become “a bible” for him, with the successes and failures of the game’s strategies providing valuable lessons in his own life and career. He is now drawing inspiration from his favourite character, [military general] Sun Ce, as he begins a new phase of his career establishing his own marketing agency.

“Sun Ce is a strong believer in himself,” Woo says. “He is confident and has the courage to break through boundaries. These qualities resonate with me at this moment, as I’m leaving the corporate world and starting my own business.”

Cristiano Mazzucco, an Italian language teacher and sinologist based in Beijing, who creates videos about his love of Chinese culture and history on RedNote, the popular Chinese social media network, has long been fascinated by the Three Kingdoms period.

“What I love about the Three Kingdoms period is its strong connection and resonance with the modern world,” Mazzucco says. “Even though these stories happened almost 2,000 years ago, we can still learn a lot from them and apply them to how we manage interpersonal relationships today.”

His favourite historical figure from this era is Liu Bei, the founding emperor of the kingdom of Shu, who is dedicated to the values of benevolence and righteousness.

“The Three Kingdoms era has become a shared cultural code,” he says. “Many everyday phrases we use – such as ‘Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao appears’ [a phrase with a similar meaning to ‘speak of the devil’, which refers to the founding emperor of the kingdom of Wei] – contain references to that period. Mention [military strategist] Zhuge Liang’s name and people immediately recognise the archetype of wisdom.”

Mazzucco sees games like Three Kingdoms Tactics as a cultural bridge. He believes the game’s immersive nature, which allows players to feel as if they are embodying the character they have chosen and making the strategic decisions they would have taken at the time, helps to make Chinese history more accessible for a wider audience.

“Three Kingdoms-themed games offer people – especially those who don’t understand the language or the cultural background – a fun, interactive way of learning more about the history of this period,” he says.

Three Kingdoms Tactics also served as the theme of Lingxi Games’ 2024 exhibition at Chengdu’s Wuhou Shrine, a historic landmark dedicated to Zhuge Liang, alongside an invitational esports tournament featuring the game at the nearby Sichuan Gymnasium. These events were meant to give young people a chance to nurture their affinity for Chinese culture and history and offer a platform for them to find out more about the stories and people of the Three Kingdoms period, the game company said.

The integration of video games into mainstream culture has been a global phenomenon in recent years. The appeal of the hit television series The Last of Us and the film Super Mario Bros Movie are just some of the leading examples of games “spilling over” into other mainstream media formats, the International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure reported last year.

Meanwhile, video gaming’s nature of combining elements of computer science, music, animation and storytelling into immersive experiences for users underscores its accessibility and value as a cultural product that reflects the time in which we live.

Chinese Industry experts see home-grown video games as one of the most important assets in promoting Chinese culture abroad. An Op-Ed article last year on the People’s Tribune website, managed by People’s Daily, said games such as Black Myth: Wukong have inspired the “Chinese mythology craze” abroad and have the potential to be “a carrier of soft power” that brings the country’s culture to a global audience.

“I hope that Three Kingdoms Tactics will allow people around the world to understand more about Chinese culture and history,” Han says.