TikTok-owner ByteDance’s aggressive mobile gaming push is paying off as player spending grows

Chinese internet goliath ByteDance’s nascent foray into gaming is giving signs of commitment with spending across its mobile titles developing over the course of the last year as it hopes to challenge rivals Tencent and NetEase.

The TikTok owner created $1 billion of player spending across its mobile games between June 21, 2021, and June 20, 2022, a 16% increment from a similar period last year, as indicated by the data analytics company Sensor Tower. This figure incorporates data from Apple’s App Store and Google Play, yet not outsider Android stores in China.

ByteDance, most popular for its short video app TikTok and the Chinese version Douyin, has looked to aggressively extend into mobile gaming, a region that Tencent and NetEase have overwhelmed in China. Recently, ByteDance set up a committed gaming business unit inside.

Last year, ByteDance obtained significant gaming studios Moonton and C4, assisting with giving its endeavors a big boost overseas by purchasing well-known games as a part of the deals.

The majority of player spending was on games that ByteDance gained. mobile Legends: Bang Bang from Moonton created $317.7 million, representing 32% of the annual $1 billion figure, Sensor Tower said. C4′s Girls Chronicle: Idle Heroine, follows intently in second.

“ByteDance’s deals for Mobile Legends developer Moonton and Girls Chronicle studio C4 have been transformative,” Craig Chapple, mobile experiences tactician at Sensor Tower, told CNBC through email.

“It’s built up its games operations so quickly that it’s already becoming a significant mobile games publisher, particularly in China and Asia. It has a long way to go to catch up with heavyweights like NetEase and Tencent, of course, but it’s moving in the right direction.”

For comparison between June 21, 2021, and June 20, 2022, player spending across Tencent mobile games added up to $7.9 billion globally, while NetEase’s figure added up to $3.1 billion, contrasted and ByteDance’s $1 billion.

International success

ByteDance has made progress globally with its TikTok app and the Beijing-headquartered company is beginning to get brings about gaming thanks to those acquisitions.

The company’s biggest market sectors are in Asia, with Japan accounting for 34% of player spending on its mobile titles, while China ranks second and the United States third, Chapple said.

“What I find most interesting is how significant its deals for Moonton and C4 have been in that international expansion,” he added.

Throughout the past year, the greatest market by revenue for Moonton’s Mobile Legends was the United States at more than $50 million, Sensor Tower data showed. C4′s Girls Chronicle: Idle Heroine, in the meantime, created $303.5 million during that period in Japan, as per the data.

The international extension is key for ByteDance as controllers in China have tightened scrutiny of the domestic gaming sector. Last year, Beijing said that kids under 18 years of age were simply permitted to play online games for as long as three hours a week.

What’s more, China’s gaming industry is just barely rising up out of a months-long endorsement freeze. In China, games need a regulatory endorsement to be monetized.

These severe measures have hit China’s gaming goliaths with Tencent posting its slowest ever revenue development in the second quarter of the year.

Both Tencent and NetEase have glanced at international markets for growth, a strategy that ByteDance gives off an impression of being repeating in the midst of regulatory headwinds at home.

“The company has spent the last year growing its operations both in China and internationally. In the face of regulatory challenges in China, we may see ByteDance joining Tencent and NetEase and expanding its operations further internationally, something the company already has huge experience and success in with TikTok,” Chapple said.