After the Midfield: Where Is the Next Threshold for Mini Games?

Summary

In 2025, China's mini-program game (mini game) market revenue reached RMB 53.535 billion, a year-on-year increase of 34.39%, and the industry widely considers it one of the key growth drivers for the coming years. Entering 2026, daily direct advertising spending for mini games across the country's three major ad platforms is approximately RMB 180 million, up about 26% year-on-year; in the first half of the year, WeChat and Douyin saw about 43,000 games participating in advertising, up 24.4%, with over 26.8 million creative assets, a nearly 30% increase. These figures show that the mini-game market, product count, and creative volume are still expanding in tandem. However, while reduced development costs have led to a surge in product numbers, advertising costs have skyrocketed, making survival increasingly difficult: the casual hyper-casual track hosts over 15,000 active advertising products; pure farming, restaurant, and city-building simulation games have seen significant cutbacks in ad spend; and monthly creative volume for 'Legend' RPGs has nearly halved in six months. This reflects a shift from extensive growth to a zero-sum game, where relying solely on user acquisition is no longer sustainable. Product innovation and refined operations are becoming critical for the next stage. For players, the abundance of titles offers more choices but also leads to homogenization…