Two of the most popular games on Steam now are from China
Tencent's battle royale Ring of Elysium and indie game The Scroll of Taiwu reach the top ten most-played list on Valve's gaming platform
Two of the most-played games on Steam right now are from China -- but they’re popular for two very different reasons.
This isn’t just down to the enormous number of Chinese gamers out there, though. Steam may be the world’s most popular PC gaming platform, but it’s not officially available in China. But the platform became hugely popular after the arrival of PUBG, leading to a huge spike in the number of Chinese gamers on Steam.
PUBG, the battle royale pioneer
That population of Chinese gamers on Steam explains the success of The Scroll of Taiwu, given that it’s only available in Chinese. But Tencent’s Ring of Elysium seems to be gaining traction with Western gamers instead.
Chinese gamers love battle royale, but this was clearly targeted at the West -- judging by the fact that Tencent released the game on Steam, instead of its own rival platform, WeGame.
And it appears to be working, judging by the clips flooding Twitch from gamers in the US playing Ring of Elysium. Other Chinese games have become popular among Western gamers before, like Arena of Valor, but this still stands out as a rare success story.
Arena of Valor, China’s mobile League of Legends, is aiming to be the world’s go-to mobile esport
As for The Scroll of Taiwu, while “Chinese game does well with Chinese gamers” may not sound all that surprising, the scale of the indie game’s success is still notable.
The Scroll of Taiwu straddles the roguelike, RPG and strategy genres, and is themed on wuxia -- a genre of Chinese martial arts stories.
A third of China’s population plays mobile games
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For more insights into China tech, sign up for our tech newsletters, subscribe to our Inside China Tech podcast, and download the comprehensive 2019 China Internet Report. Also roam China Tech City, an award-winning interactive digital map at our sister site Abacus.