two & a half gamers Minigames Gold Rush: The $7B Opportunity western devs missed by Lemon Choi
In this Two and a Half Gamers special, Matej and Felix sit down with Lemon (柠檬游戏说) — WeChat Mini-Game blogger, founder of Hyperjoy, and consultant for Scopely — to unpack the Chinese mini-game gold rush.
Key insights:
2024 market revenue: $7B+ (¥50B RMB).
500M+ MAU, 400K+ dev teams
183% YoY increase in advertisers; dev cycles: 4 weeks (hypercasual) to 3–6 months (hybrid/midcore).
Balanced demographics: gender 50/50, strong 24–40 y/o core.
Winners: 4X/SLG, Tower Defense Roguelike, Merge/Match.
Declining: Hybrid RPGs, Simulation.
Stable: Idle Card RPGs.
60% of UA spend is concentrated in RPG, SLG, and TD.
Day-1 payer retention is highest in RPG/4X (18–85%).
Top Games
Ice War: Three Kingdoms – Whiteout Survival clone w/ localized 3K theme.
Bangbang Survivor – Top-grossing $1M+/day, IP expanding into 4X.
Penguin Go! – Lucky Defense survivor, meta system differentiates it.
Plant Master TD Go – Backpack TD hit (#5 grossing).
永远的蔚蓝星球 (Summon & Merge TD) – $30M/month, global Q4 launch.
Human Leap: Evolution – Top Douyin ad-mon game
Save the King – Royal Match UA creative turned into a WeChat hit ($70K/day ads).
East ↔ West Expansion
West → East: Supercell, Century Games, Scopely already entering WeChat mini-games.
East → West: Galaxy Defense, Legend of Mushroom, Banban Survivor meta systems fueling crossovers.
Success requires simplification of meta for Western markets.
Takeaway: Mini-games are not “mini.” They’re a $7B industry with complex metas, ruthless UA competition, and growing East–West crossover potential.
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This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let’s not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.
Panelists: Lemon Choi
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lemon-minigame/
Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-2um8eguhf-c~H9idcxM271mnPzdWbipg
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to China's Minigame Market
03:01 Minigame Market Overview
07:26 Minigame Genres and Trends
14:56 Successful Minigames and Case Studies
29:04 Key Takeaways and Future Outlook
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Matej Lancaric
User Acquisition & Creatives Consultant
https://lancaric.me
Felix Braberg
Ad monetization consultant
https://www.felixbraberg.com
Jakub Remiar
Game design consultant
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar
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