Published on: 2026-08-10
Source: People’s Republic of China — Translation
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Beijing, August 10 /Xinhua/ — Recently, the 23rd China International Digital Interactive Entertainment Exhibition (ChinaJoy-2026) closed in the Chinese megacity of Shanghai, with the participation of representatives from the Russian gaming industry being an integral part. As reported by the Creative Industries Agency (CIA) under the Moscow Department of Culture, this year a record number of Russian projects were brought to the event.
This year, at the Moscow Video Games and Animation Cluster booth at ChinaJoy-2026, more than 20 Russian projects from 12 game studios were presented. According to AKI, this is the largest delegation from the Russian capital ever to participate in this event. Moreover, 18 games were shown for the first time to representatives of the Chinese gaming industry.
Chinese gamers specifically noted that flight simulators, racing games, action games, casual games, and VR projects were all gathered on one platform. Most of the games showcased received Chinese language localization taking into account the specifics of the local market. The APK emphasizes that China remains a priority market for Russia in game exports.
ChinaJoy is one of the most significant exhibitions in the world in the field of computer games and entertainment. The main theme this year is “Level up with AI.” More than 900 companies participated. The exhibition area amounted to 140,000 sq. m.
At last year’s event, participants of the Moscow Game Export program, launched by AKI to promote Moscow game studios in the international market, signed 36 contracts worth about 86 million yuan.
At the ChinaJoy-2026 exhibition, Russian developers focused on simulators and projects celebrating Russian culture and mythology. For example, “War and Peace” – an adaptation of the novel by Leo Tolstoy.
“The works of L. Tolstoy are part of the mandatory school curriculum in China, and the novel ‘War and Peace’ is part of the general cultural treasury for the Chinese audience,” noted Zhao Xu, a member of the expert council of the China International Cultural Exchange Center (CICEC).
In her opinion, when classic novels are introduced to a new generation through virtual reality, and Slavic legends come to life in game formats, cultural exchange takes on an everyday form that is understandable to young people in both countries.
At the ChinaJoy-2026 exhibition, the “China Gaming Industry Report for January-June 2026” was also published. According to the document prepared by the Games Publishing Working Committee of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association, the actual revenue of the domestic gaming market in the first half of this year amounted to 188.45 billion yuan — which is 12.17% more than in the same period last year. At the same time, revenue from sales of Chinese games abroad for the specified period reached 12.372 billion US dollars, showing a year-on-year growth of 30.22%. Thus, the growth rates in overseas markets exceeded those in the domestic market by nearly 2.5 times.
Yandex Ads, a division of the leading Russian internet technology company “Yandex” specializing in advertising technologies, in turn, presented at the exhibition the “Report on the Growth of the Mobile Games Market in Russia and Consumer Value in 2026.” It emphasizes that Russia remains a strategically important market for Chinese mobile game publishers.
In 2025, Russia ranked seventh in the world for the number of mobile game downloads and fifth for gaming time duration. The total number of downloads for the year was 2.04 billion, and the average monthly gaming time was 11.5 hours, according to the aforementioned report.
Data from the search engine “Yandex” shows a steady interest among Russian users in mobile games. In 2024 and 2025, the annual volume of search queries related to mobile games on this platform exceeded 200 million, indicating the high popularity of this segment.
At the same time, the analysis of queries by genre shows that role-playing games (RPGs) are the most in demand, accounting for 38 percent of total queries. In this category, the Chinese game “Genshin Impact” particularly stands out, which in 2025 received 63.53 million queries, confidently taking the leading position in this genre. Also, among the most popular Chinese RPGs by number of queries were “Where Winds Meet” and “Black Myth: Wukong.”
These results confirm that Chinese developers hold a significant share of the Russian mobile RPG game market, offering users quality content that resonates with a wide audience.
Today, industry cooperation and market interaction between China and Russia in the gaming sector are forming a fruitful bilateral exchange. The Russian market holds an important place for Chinese gaming companies and is among the key overseas directions.
Against this background, Chinese mobile game publishers are actively increasing investments in promoting projects on RuStore, said RuStore Business Development Director Ilya Ulyanov, adding that mobile game developers from China still hold first place among the platform’s foreign advertisers.
As clarified by I. Ulyanov, China accounted for about 80 percent of the entire foreign advertising budget in the first six months of the year. China also maintains leadership in the number of applications presented in the RuStore catalog: approximately 60 percent of them were developed by companies from China.
According to communication studies experts, thanks to China’s ongoing efforts to combine its rich cultural heritage with modern digital platforms, its influence on global pop culture will continue to grow.
According to Ma Jing, head of Yandex Ads in the Greater China region, Russian users are characterized by high loyalty. At the same time, the device ecosystem in the country is predominantly represented by the Android platform, and the greatest demand is observed for midcore games, which lie between casual and hardcore, largely corresponding to the strengths of Chinese game developers.
As the expert notes, previously when entering foreign markets, Chinese studios primarily targeted the USA, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. However, today the indicators of digital infrastructure, average app usage time, and the purchasing power of Russian users are comparable to those of these markets. Given the high competition in traditional directions, Russia may potentially become one of the key vectors for Chinese games to enter foreign markets.
Please note; This information is raw content obtained directly from the information source. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.