Chongqing—At the 2025 WeChat Game Developer Conference recently held in Chongqing’s Liangjiang New Area, WeChat announced that its Mini Games platform now boasts over 500 million monthly active users and more than 1 billion registered users, solidifying its position as a global hub for game developers.
WeChat Mini Games is a category of WeChat Mini Programs. Benefiting from the ecosystem and massive user base of WeChat, Tencent, the world’s largest game service provider, Mini Games enjoys strong user acquisition capabilities. According to Tencent’s financial report for Q1 2025, the monthly active users of WeChat exceeded 1.4 billion.
Mini Games are incorporated into Mini programs. (Photo/WeChat)
Tencent invites one of its global game developers to join the conference. Supercell, a Finnish mobile game developer that made famous games like Clash Royale and Clash of Clans, has now announced its entry into WeChat Mini Games. The company released only six games over the past decade, but these games generated nearly 3 billion USD in revenue in 2024 alone.
At the conference, Supercell announced its entry into WeChat Mini Games. The Global Head of Publishing and Content for Clash of Clans of Supercell stated that with rising demand for lightweight games among Chinese users, WeChat Mini Games offer a market opportunity. Although Tencent holds over 80% of Supercell’s shares, the founding team and management remain independent.
Compared to traditional app-based mobile games, mini games are lightweight, easy to play, and accessible directly through the Internet platform without downloading apps. The industry has grown rapidly in recent years. The 2024 China Game Industry report showed that the domestic mini game market generated 39.836 billion yuan (5.56 billion USD) in revenue last year, a 99.18% year-on-year increase.
The Global Head of Publishing and Content for Clash of Clans of Supercell updated the company's progress in launching games on the WeChat Mini Game. (Photo/the 2025 WeChat Mini Game Developer Conference)
As a key player in this booming industry, Min Games benefits from the ecosystem of Tencent, a major Chinese internet company. Backed by the massive user base of the WeChat platform, the product enjoys strong user acquisition capabilities. According to Tencent’s financial report for Q1 2025, the monthly active users of WeChat exceeded 1.4 billion.
The conference disclosed that more than 80% of users actively search for mini games via unique WeChat features such as pull-down access, search, and social sharing. On average, each user plays six mini games per month, with daily usage time increasing by 10% year-on-year.
WeChat Mini Games monetize primarily through In-App Purchases (IAP) and In-App Advertising (IAA). According to the report, in 2024, IAP contributed 27.364 billion yuan in actual sales revenue, accounting for 68.7% of the total, while advertising revenue stood at 12.472 billion yuan, 31.3%. The conference noted that IAA-based WeChat Mini Games are expanding rapidly, with more than 200 million users watching ads each month and total ad viewing time up 10% from the previous year.
Attendees participated in on-site gaming activities. (Photo/the 2025 WeChat Mini Game Developer Conference)
As the user base expands, non-traditional gamer segments are becoming key consumers. Mini-game developer Mr. Liu noted that WeChat, as a widely used national app, has lowered the barrier to entry and attracted older and female users who previously had limited exposure to gaming.
The conference reported that women and senior users have become core drivers of advertising value within WeChat Mini Games. Female users alone contributed 70% of ad impressions, and for the eCPM, which means effective cost per mille, a metric indicating that as the revenue earned per 1,000 ad impressions, it increased by 70%.
Leveraging its platform advantages, WeChat Mini Games has attracted a large number of developers and companies. Currently, 70% of listed gaming companies have entered the mini game sector, with over 400,000 developers involved.
Li Li, General Manager of Chongqing Yunwei Technology, said that developers previously had to spend heavily on user acquisition via apps, but WeChat Mini Games now enables low-cost and fast distribution.
Mini-game developers exchanged ideas on-site. (Photo/the 2025 WeChat Mini Game Developer Conference)
Despite Supercell’s entry, overseas developers still face challenges when entering China’s mini-game market. Li Qing, Product Director of WeChat Mini Games, explained that foreign developers must meet access requirements, such as holding a publishing license issued by the National Press and Publication Administration, establishing a local entity, or conducting secondary development within China. Technical compatibility issues may arise when integrating proprietary game engines with WeChat Mini Games.
Competition is also fierce. Xu Chuan, Head of R&D at Chongqing Candy Technology Co., Ltd., said that despite the market’s size, many games offer similar gameplay. Meanwhile, users are cautious about accepting new concepts, making innovation within established frameworks essential for standing out and attracting players.