Right now, China is the largest gaming market in the world, with a player base of 550 million. That's almost 50% of the country's overall population—essentially half of China clicking, swiping, and button-mashing their way through digital worlds while the other half presumably watches them do it. On top of that, it also accounts for 25% of the overall revenue generated by the global video game industry, which explains why gaming executives worldwide suddenly develop passionate interests in Chinese culture, cuisine, and business customs.
Thanks to the country's innovative online game publishers, more gaming content is gaining attention locally and globally. Annual conferences, such as China Joy 2025, make this heightened demand possible—creating a Woodstock for gamers, minus the mud but with significantly more cosplay.
This event brings together businesses, influencers, game enthusiasts, industry experts, and consumers, providing a platform to discuss new trends and innovations in the gaming industry. It's basically Comic-Con meets CES meets the world's largest LAN party.
It's one of the events you wouldn't want to miss if you intend to break into the Chinese gaming market—unless, of course, you prefer launching products into the void and wondering why nobody's buying them. Read along as we discuss what to expect during the fair, when and where it will be held, and the digital marketing strategies you can consider to maximize its hype without requiring emergency caffeine injections.
What To Expect at the ChinaJoy 2025 Event (Spoiler Alert: Crowds, Lots of Crowds)
ChinaJoy is an annual exhibition that features business trends and developments in the domestic digital entertainment industry. It's also an important Chinese marketing calendar event for game developers and studios, as the majority of its themes revolve around the online gaming market in China—think of it as the Super Bowl for the gaming industry, except it lasts three days and nobody understands the halftime show.
While last year's installment was focused on indie games, China Joy's 2025 show generally highlighted the potential of globalizing local gaming content and introducing more international titles to Chinese audiences. Because nothing says "cultural exchange" like teaching people worldwide the joy of defeating the same final boss in multiple languages.
It's a digital entertainment expo where the best game developers worldwide can present their works and connect with potential business partners, investors, and Chinese gamers who will ultimately decide if your game is the next sensation or just another icon taking up storage space on their phones.
Drawing an average crowd of 360,000 visitors in 2024—roughly the population of Iceland, but concentrated into convention halls and significantly more enthusiastic about loot boxes—the Game Connection x China Joy 2025 Conference is set to be the most extensive event of the same theme in Asia.
It's typically held in three days and divided into four events. One section is dedicated to company representatives and business entities, while the other focuses on consumers who play the games. It's essentially a mullet approach to conventions: business in the front, party in the back.
In ChinaJoy's B2C events, you'll notice that a lot of the talks center around improving player experiences in games. Meanwhile, it's also a promising avenue for B2B marketing as part of its conferences, which focus on topics that help companies expand their international presence—because teaching dragons to speak multiple languages requires expert consultation.
The organizers also provided access to other aspects of the industry, including the CDEC (China Digital Entertainment Congress) and the CGDC (China Game Developers Conference)—yes, the gaming industry loves acronyms almost as much as it loves creating impossible end-boss battles.
In the past, ChinaJoy welcomed nearly 600 exhibitors from 31 countries, including local regions, who participated in the fair. With more game titles arriving in the local market, these numbers will likely increase in the long run. That's 600+ companies all competing for attention, which explains the increasingly elaborate booth designs and the rising decibel levels each year.
Who Are The Expected Attendees of ChinaJoy 2025? (Everyone Who's Anyone in Gaming... Plus 359,995 Others)
● Major Tech Companies (The Whales with Booths the Size of Small Countries)
Given that this digital entertainment exhibition held the largest online gaming crowd in the country, it's not uncommon to encounter booths and conferences spearheaded by tech giants in the Chinese market—booths so large they have their own weather systems.
Companies such as Tencent, Baidu, NetEase, Microsoft, PlayStation, and Meituan often participate in this summer festival to build hype around their new offerings and engage with their current user base. Their booths typically feature more lights than Las Vegas, enough free merchandise to start your own retail business, and lines so long you could finish an entire mobile game while waiting.
● Industry Professionals (The People Who Make the Magic Happen, Then Debug It for Six Months)
Among the hundreds of thousands of visitors, industry experts like game developers, designers, and pro-game players will likely attend China Joy 2025. These professionals can offer valuable insights into current market conditions and upcoming trends, which will enhance your market research efforts—or at least give you something impressive-sounding to put in your expense report justification.
● Technology Brands (Not Just Game Makers, But the Hardware Heroes Too)
In addition to game companies and developers, ChinaJoy 2025 is an excellent opportunity for electronic consumer brands to expand their business networks and generate visibility in China's online gaming scene. Because what's a great game without a device that can run it without melting?
Qualcomm's participation in the previous ChinaJoy exhibitions is one of the best examples of this marketing strategy. It's when the company allowed exhibit visitors to experience VR games in their booth through their technology and products—essentially letting people try expensive equipment they might never buy but will definitely brag about experiencing to their friends.
● Media Representatives (Your Ticket to Fame or Public Relations Disasters)
Another benefit of participating in ChinaJoy is its high level of media exposure. As the largest gaming conference in the country and Asia, major news companies from local regions and international markets will surely cover the exhibition. This means anything remarkable you do might go viral—for better or worse. Choose wisely which employee gets to speak to journalists after the open bar networking event.
When & Where is the Game Connection x China Joy happening? (Mark Your Calendar in Permanent Ink)
Game Connection x ChinaJoy 2025 event was held at the Shanghai New International Expo Center, with a three-day exhibition from the 1st to the 3rd of August 2025. There's no announcement yet as to when the 2026 installment will happen, but you can safely assume it will be when Shanghai reaches its peak summer humidity—because nothing enhances a gaming convention like the feeling of walking through soup.
How Can Foreign Brands Prepare for ChinaJoy 2025? (Besides Learning to Say "Where's the Bathroom?" in Mandarin)
1. Launch Event-Related Marketing Campaigns On WeChat (Because Facebook Is Just a Distant Memory in China)
When it comes to social media marketing in China, nothing beats WeChat's reach. The app serves over a billion users and features an all-in-one marketing ecosystem that enables brands to connect with their audiences in various ways—it's like if WhatsApp, Instagram, PayPal, Uber, and Amazon had a baby that grew up to rule the digital world.
Your WeChat marketing strategy for ChinaJoy 2025 could include features like live-streaming sessions, advertising campaigns, or mini-programs that can generate traction for your brand before the said event. If you're not on WeChat, you might as well be advertising by carrier pigeon.
In our ChinaJoy campaign for Sennheiser, we took advantage of WeChat's O2O features. Our content strategy centers on encouraging the attendees to scan the QR code on-site, leading them to the brand's newly launched WeChat official account. Through this strategy, we diverted the offline crowd in their event booth to online private domain traffic—essentially turning "random people who walked past our booth" into "digital followers we can market to forever." Clever, right?
Our team also posted content related to ChinaJoy throughout the event. This included a giveaway announcement that gave followers a chance to win a Sennheiser headset when they uploaded a photo with the booth—because nothing motivates social sharing like free stuff, a universal truth that transcends all language barriers.
2. Localize Your Brand and Content Marketing Channels (Because Google Translate Won't Save Your Marketing Campaign)
Although China Joy attracts foreign audiences and media, most of the visitors you'll meet are local companies and consumers. These attendees are more locally inclined than your grandmother is about which grocery store has the best produce prices.
So, when they encounter your brand in the exhibition, chances are they'll search for your offerings and credibility online before they decide to patronize your business. As a result, your social profiles and websites should be localized—unless your business plan includes being invisible to 550 million potential customers.
Start with the channels that Chinese gamers and industry buyers already use. Keep copy in simplified Chinese, speak like a player or a partner rather than a foreign brand, and make it effortless to go from your booth to your digital touchpoints with QR codes. In China, QR codes aren't just a nice addition—they're as essential as oxygen.
ChinaJoy's foot traffic is heavily domestic, so show you belong in the local digital ecosystem from their first scan. Here are some ideas on how to do it:
- Make a fast, locally-hosted website and landing pages. To accomplish this, you need an ICP filing or license, and you should display the number in your footer. Getting an ICP license is about as fun as filing taxes underwater, but equally necessary if you want Chinese users to actually see your website.
- Adapt social media visuals, tone, and narrative to Chinese trends, including colors, popular cultural references, humor, and slang. What's funny in one culture might be confusing or even off‑putting in another. That meme that killed on Twitter? In China, it might be as well-received as bringing a fork to a chopstick competition.
- Optimize your website for Chinese search engines like Baidu, making sure hosting and loading speeds meet local standards. If your site takes longer to load than it takes to defeat a mid-level boss, you've already lost your visitor.
- Use event hashtags and participate in online forum discussions to show you're participating in the same conversation as local brands and fans. Nothing says "we're relevant" like actually being where the conversations are happening.
3. Find the Right KOL or KOC to Collaborate with (Your Digital Kingdom Needs the Right Allies)
Massive events like ChinaJoy are hot spots for influencers whose recommendations and reviews are highly trusted by many consumers in the Chinese gaming industry. These online personalities are commonly referred to as Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) or Key Opinion Consumers (KOCs), and they can make or break your product launch faster than a speedrunner can finish the first level of Super Mario Bros.
They maintain solid credibility and visibility on social media and video-streaming platforms in China, enabling them to influence their followers' purchasing decisions—think of them as digital royalty whose blessing can turn your obscure game into tomorrow's obsession.
These top influencers typically focus their content creation on a specific niche or industry, so most of their audiences are targeted or highly engaged. Since ChinaJoy has a local consumer reach, you can utilize the positive reputations of KOLs or KOCs to get ahead of the competition and drive more visibility—assuming you can get their attention among the hundreds of other brands trying to do exactly the same thing.
How to find and collaborate with KOLs / KOCs for ChinaJoy campaigns?
The best approach is to look for influencers whose audience naturally aligns with your product. Avoid chasing only follower counts. Remember, engagement rates and authenticity matter more in the Chinese digital ecosystem—much like how a small party with your actual friends is better than a huge gathering where nobody knows your name.
Practical ways to connect include:
- Observe existing conversations: Monitor who is already talking about gaming trends or ChinaJoy previews and see which voices gain strong engagement. The influencer with 50,000 highly engaged followers might be worth more than someone with 2 million followers who mostly post emoji responses to sponsored content.
- Check credibility signals: Look at the quality of comments, shares, and how followers respond to recommendations. If their audience would follow them into a boss battle blindfolded, they'll certainly consider buying your product.
- Engage directly: Reach out with clear expectations, whether it's live coverage, product mentions, or offline appearances during the event. Vague requests get vague results—or worse, creative interpretations you weren't expecting.
- Offer value: Beyond financial incentives, provide early access to products or insider information that makes collaboration worthwhile. The days of "we'll pay you in exposure" are as outdated as floppy disks.
For collaborations with gaming KOLs, the goal isn't just exposure. It's about creating trust by letting a respected figure in the community validate your presence during one of China's biggest gaming showcases. It's digital street cred, and in the gaming world, that's more valuable than rare loot.
Pre-Event Tips for China Joy 2025 (How to Look Like You Know What You're Doing)
Beyond marketing, foreign brands intending to participate in China Joy should be fully prepared to maximize the event's perks. Here are some tips worth considering before you head out to China's biggest gaming exhibition:
- Double-check ChinaJoy dates and align them with your travel details, such as accommodation and transportation. Hotels in Shanghai during ChinaJoy are harder to book than a raid party on a popular MMO server at launch.
- Do your research about ChinaJoy's official participants. Note the talks and conferences happening each day so that you can allocate time for them and gain valuable information about the industry's current trajectory. Walking in unprepared is like entering a PvP arena without armor.
- Study the local business culture and try to participate in networking events hosted by organizers. Remember that business relationships in China are built over time, not instantaneously with a LinkedIn connection and a firm handshake.
- Knowing basic Mandarin can be a significant advantage when attending local exhibitions, such as China Joy. Alternatively, you can hire translators to accompany you during the event to make your networking efforts easier. At minimum, learn how to say "Your game is awesome" in Mandarin—it's networking gold.
Best Chinese Platforms to Promote Your Participation in ChinaJoy (Because Instagram Posts Won't Help You Here)
ChinaJoy is where your digital presence matters just as much as your booth design. If you want to capture attention before, during, and after the event, the right platforms in China can amplify your visibility. Each channel plays a unique role in shaping how local audiences perceive your brand. Here are some of your options:
Xiaohongshu (Where Beautiful Content Goes to Thrive)
Xiaohongshu is increasingly popular among younger professionals and lifestyle-focused gamers. It thrives on authentic recommendations and personal experiences. Visual storytelling and influencer collaborations can make your ChinaJoy participation feel more relatable—less "corporate brand pushing product" and more "cool friend showing you something awesome."
- Post visually appealing photo diaries of your team's journey at ChinaJoy (The more authentic and less staged, the better)
- Work with KOCs to create posts that highlight your booth and giveaways (People trust people, not logos)
- Encourage visitors to share their own posts with a branded hashtag (User-generated content is marketing you don't have to create yourself)
Douyin (TikTok's Cousin That Actually Makes You Money)
Douyin is China's leading short-video platform with powerful creative tools, influencer (KOL / KOC) ecosystem, and excellent ad targeting. It's ideal to generate buzz via compelling video content. Some specific ways to use Douyin:
- Share creative teasers of your booth setup (The more eye-catching, the more shares)
- Highlight interactive activities or giveaways through short clips (Make viewers feel FOMO if they're not there)
- Encourage user-generated videos by offering small incentives (The digital equivalent of "dance for your supper," but with prizes)
Bilibili (Where the Real Gamers Hang Out)
Bilibili is deeply rooted in gaming and anime culture, making it a natural fit for ChinaJoy promotions. Unlike Douyin, Bilibili users value longer, more thoughtful content. Brands often succeed here by creating explainers or commentary-style videos around their gaming products—think of it as the platform for gaming connoisseurs rather than casual scrollers.
- Upload detailed previews of your games or technologies (Don't be afraid to get technical)
- Collaborate with local creators for authentic reviews (Authenticity beats production value every time)
- Use livestreaming to showcase your booth to fans who cannot attend in person (Bring the event to them)
Quick Q&A (For When Your Boss Tests Your Knowledge Five Minutes Before the Meeting)
What is the largest gaming event in China?
ChinaJoy (China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference) is the largest gaming event in the Chinese market. In 2024, the exhibition exceeded the predicted crowd of 354,500 people and managed to attract 367,000 visitors over four days. These forecasts stem from the expo's triumphant comeback in 2023. That's more people than the entire population of Iceland, all gathered to celebrate the joy of digitally slaying dragons and building virtual empires.
Ready to Dominate the Chinese Gaming Market? Get In Touch With Us Today!
Attending an elaborate gaming and digital entertainment expo like ChinaJoy opens many doors for foreign brands. It serves as a platform where marketers can learn about the latest industry trends, meet potential consumers, and observe major competitors—all while trying not to get lost in a sea of cosplayers, tech enthusiasts, and business professionals trying to look cool while secretly being excited about the new game trailers.
Because in the world of Chinese gaming, you're either at ChinaJoy or you're practically invisible. And in a market of 550 million players, invisibility is a luxury your brand cannot afford—unless your business strategy includes being the best-kept secret in an industry that thrives on hype.