Citi: Scale of Game License Approvals Hits 5-Yr High; CN Regulators Support Healthy Development of Online Gaming Industry
Complete. Here is the key summaryCiti reports that China's NPPA approved 197 game licenses in its latest batch, marking a five-year high. This move, timed before the summer peak and ChinaJoy, signals regulatory support for the online gaming industry's healthy development. Citi believes this benefits developers and strengthens content pipelines, particularly aiding market leaders like Tencent and NetEase to drive sustainable growth through their robust R&D capabilities.
China's National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) recently announced the seventh batch of game approvals for this year, granting a total of 197 game licenses, including 193 domestic games and 4 imported games, Citi said in a research report.
This marked the largest single-batch approval scale in the past five years and beat the average levels seen in 1H26 and 2025. The broker believed the timing of the approvals, ahead of the summer peak season and the ChinaJoy exhibition, reflected regulators' continued support for the healthy development of the online gaming industry.
The latest approvals would benefit game developers and further strengthen the industry's healthy content pipeline. Citi expressed confidence that market leaders including TENCENT (00700.HK) -10.600 (-2.381%) Short selling $843.29M; Ratio 14.289% and NTES (09999.HK) -3.300 (-1.728%) Short selling $217.78M; Ratio 45.316% could leverage their strong game pipelines and industrialized R&D capabilities to drive sustainable and stable growth.
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