A bust of the Destined One, the protagonist of the Zhejiang-developed video game Black Myth: Wukong, is on display. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

China's game publishers are accelerating their push overseas, with self-developed titles generating $18.56 billion in overseas revenue in 2024, up 13.4 percent year-on-year, according to the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association.

Zhejiang is emerging as one of the strongest engines behind that surge. Hangzhou-based NetEase recently launched its open-world RPG Where Winds Meet on Steam, PlayStation, and Epic. The game drew more than 500,000 overseas players within 40 minutes of release.

In Yuhang district, Wanxinbuzhi Co Ltd is seeing similar momentum. The mobile-game operator, founded in 2017, now manages more than 500 titles across over 100 markets, with a focus on Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America. 

Since formally expanding abroad in 2022, the company has accumulated 80 million overseas registered users, with revenue and user scale doubling annually.

Zhejiang's broader ecosystem is expanding just as quickly. The province now hosts more than 1,500 companies along the online-gaming industrial chain, including two enterprises with annual revenue above 10 billion yuan ($1.41 billion) and seven with market valuations exceeding 10 billion yuan. 

Most are clustered in Hangzhou's Xihu, Binjiang, and Yuhang districts, forming one of China's densest gaming innovation hubs.