Could games possibly become even more fun and profitable?

The days when you could "make money just by throwing together a game" are now a thing of the past.

According to statistical data from the “2025 January–June China Game Industry Report,”the number of domestic game users reached 679 million in the first half of 2025, but the year-over-year growth rate was a mere 0.72 percent. This indicates that the market’s growth potential continues to shrink and that the industry has already fully entered a difficult phase characterized by “competition for existing customers.”

Behind the scenes of these data points, developers across various fields are facing similarly daunting challenges to their survival.Developers focused on the mobile gaming sector must meet players’ demands for top-tier graphics and smooth gameplay while overcoming technical bottlenecks in performance optimization; at the same time, they face the dual pressures of soaring traffic costs and low user retention rates.Meanwhile, developers entering the mini-game sector are constrained by issues such as the complexity of development and support, a plateau in user numbers on single platforms, fierce competition due to homogenization, and low monetization efficiency, preventing them from fully capitalizing on growth opportunities in this lightweight sector.

These overlapping challenges have become universal obstacles to the industry’s growth, and determining how to target these issues effectively to break through this impasse has become the top priority for everyone in the industry.

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The "inward-rolling" trend in mobile games should also evolve to keep up with the times.

The ultimate mission of a game is to provide players with an enjoyable experience while also achieving commensurate commercial success. In the actual process of development and operation, however, many challenges still stand in the way of achieving this goal.

• Improving the Experience

Many players have likely encountered issues such as slow loading times and stuttering during gameplay.These performance bottlenecks not only directly detract from the player’s gaming experience but also negatively impact user retention and the game’s reputation. As a result, developers often devote significant effort to eliminating bottlenecks that affect image quality and smoothness.

To fundamentally improve the user experience, upgrading the technology is undoubtedly the best approach. The native 165 ultra-high frame rate announced by OPPO Game has attracted widespread attention within the industry.Compared to the mainstream 120 frames per second, this ultra-high frame rate of 165 means that a single input results in more on-screen updates and faster command processing, allowing players to enjoy a smoother visual experience and more seamless gameplay.Dong Weixin, OPPO’s Director of Media and Game Development, stated the following during a presentation at the OPPO Developer Conference:“With an ultra-high frame rate of 165 frames per second, players can spot enemies faster in FPS games, look through their scopes and fire more quickly, aim and predict movements with greater accuracy, and unleash even more intense firepower during gunfights.”

To ensure players can enjoy a stable, long-term gaming experience at a native 165fps ultra-high frame rate, OPPO has focused on researching and developing new technologies in collaboration with upstream supply chain partners—including chip manufacturers, display suppliers, and thermal management specialists—to create a hardware environment capable of supporting this ultra-high frame rate of 165fps.Furthermore, thanks to proprietary chip-level gaming technology and support for the “Fengchi” gaming kernel—which is pre-programmed at the lowest level of the chip at the time of shipment—games running at a native 165 fps now operate flawlessly on the latest OnePlus smartphones.

Thanks to its immediate impact on the gaming experience, this technology was quickly adopted by numerous top titles, including *Operation Delta*, *Dark Zone Breakthrough*, *Call of Duty Mobile*, and *League of Legends Mobile*.

Another noteworthy point is OPPO’s focus on GPUs and graphics; its GPU-powered super-frame rendering technology now enables games to run with lower power consumption and higher image quality.Furthermore, by partnering with Qualcomm to exclusively provide implementation solutions for frame interpolation and super-resolution technologies—characterized by “standardization, ease of implementation, and low maintenance”—OPPO has continued to lower the barriers to adopting native high-frame-rate technology.A unified, standardized implementation framework has significantly simplified the optimization process and reduced the difficulty of implementation for developers, allowing more developers and players to enjoy the benefits of these technological upgrades.

This is just a small part of OPPO’s technological upgrades. Users can take advantage of the NFC “Tap to Team Up” feature to share content on social media and expand their user base. Additionally, the “Game Camera” feature allows users to automatically record highlight moments, add customizable watermarks, and share content easily—all of which indirectly help grow the user base.

It is clear that the above upgrade measures systematically optimize the entire gaming experience—from launch through gameplay to sharing. This not only allows developers to improve their technical capabilities with fewer hurdles and effectively enhance the competitiveness of their products in the market, but also enables them to comprehensively improve the smoothness and immersion of their games, thereby providing players with a more engaging, high-quality experience.

• Improving operational efficiency

For players, the only thing that matters may be whether the game is fun, but developers must not only provide players with a seamless experience but also solve the challenge of how to monetize their product. This is because it directly affects the team’s survival and growth.However, in today’s increasingly competitive landscape, “monetizing” games is becoming more and more difficult, and many developers are struggling with challenges such as high user acquisition costs, low retention rates, and slow conversion rates.

So, how should developers respond? The operational strategy shared by Team A—whom “Teahouse” happened to meet at the game-themed special session of the OPPO Developer Conference—might offer some helpful insights for you all.

A company representative told this media outlet that regarding user acquisition—the issue that causes developers the most headaches—major game distribution and advertising platforms have already introduced a wide range of solutions, and that if developers continue to monitor these platforms and make careful choices, they could significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their user acquisition efforts.

For example, during a major update to one of its games, the company leveraged OPPO’s smart algorithms to accurately identify target user segments with a high affinity for the game’s theme and gameplay, thereby significantly improving the accuracy of its user acquisition efforts.At the same time, the team actively utilized new resources such as the app store’s “Node Cards” and the “Game Assistant” desktop display slots, effectively increasing the efficiency of re-engaging existing users. Through this series of meticulous operational measures, the total number of high-value users and sustained active usage ultimately saw a significant increase.

For large-scale mobile games, it’s “business as usual” for resource package updates to take a long time; even routine updates can take several tens of minutes, and major version updates can take as long as several hours. During this process, it’s not uncommon for players to give up waiting because the update progress bar moves too slowly.

Through discussions with the head of Team A, the Tea House learned that OPPO has introduced three key features—"pre-update via channels," "background pre-update," and "idle update"—to streamline its resource packages, and that these have been remarkably effective in reducing user wait times.

How do these features work? The “Channel Pre-Update” feature allows resources to be downloaded and installed silently from the app store without affecting the device’s normal operation, so it is frequently used when new games are released or when major updates are rolled out for existing games.Two games, *Zhu Xian 2* and *Valorant Mobile*, utilized this feature during their launch phases, increasing the delivery rate of resource packages to OPPO pre-registration users to between 45% and 50%.

The “Background Pre-Update” feature allows downloads and updates to complete automatically in the background during periods of low smartphone usage. As a result, the download completion rate among active users of the new season of *Honor of Kings* reached 28%, and the wait time per user was reduced by up to 18 minutes.In addition, the “Background Update” feature allows downloads to continue even after players switch the game to the background.

The update functionality provided by the three resource packages covers virtually the entire game operations lifecycle—from game release and version updates to day-to-day operations—and comprehensively supports efforts to “minimize the impact of updates on users,” thereby reducing user churn caused by wait times.

In addition to continuously optimizing the resource update process, OPPO Games has introduced a series of practical features designed to better understand developers' needs in terms of user acquisition and operations.

By leveraging smart algorithms, teams can accurately acquire high-value users at the optimal time for promotions and effectively reduce customer acquisition costs. Additionally, ad placements that cover a wide range of scenarios—including app stores, game assistants, and browsers—provide further opportunities to reactivate dormant users.

Furthermore, it is worth noting that OPPO Games enables developers to precisely target specific user segments through multidimensional tags and custom audience packages, thereby implementing a truly “personalized approach” in their operational strategies and supporting the long-term, stable operation of their games.

While OPPO’s online operations focus on “revenue,” its offline efforts place greater emphasis on “emotional connections.”In recent years, OPPO has used “store partnerships” as a starting point for its offline efforts, providing developers with offline marketing solutions ranging from “casual check-ins” to “immersive experiences.” This has helped multiple games, including *Love in Light and Night*, achieve the dual goals of “acquiring new users” and “generating word-of-mouth.”

In Chakan’s view, OPPO’s development strategy—which balances the two pillars of “technology” and “operations”—accurately addresses the common challenges currently facing the gaming industry.Specifically, by optimizing the player experience through technological advancements while simultaneously enhancing commercial efficiency through operational strategies, the platform helps developers build a virtuous cycle of “experience-growth” amid fierce market competition. As a result, developers can devote more energy to refining the game content itself.

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Conquering the Mini-Game Market Through “Cross-Platform Integration”

Apart from the increasingly competitive mobile game market, the rapidly emerging mini-game market has become a sector attracting significant attention as game developers seek new opportunities.In recent years, the minigame market has attracted many companies due to its phenomenal growth rate, and even Supercell—based as far away as Finland—has made a major announcement this year regarding its full-scale entry into the Chinese minigame market.

However, as the market expands rapidly, issues such as user growth plateauing on individual platforms, intensifying competition due to product homogenization, and low efficiency in monetizing traffic are gradually coming to light in the mini-game sector as well.As numerous practical examples demonstrate, one of the most effective ways to maximize the potential of mini-game platforms is to promote initiatives that integrate the operation of both mobile games and mini-games.

The so-called “integration of both platforms” does not view mini-games and mobile games as separate categories, but rather seeks to maximize the growth potential of both by fully leveraging their respective strengths—through functional integration, complementary traffic flows, and user mobility—thereby maximizing operational efficiency.In fact, the concept of “cross-platform integration” has long been a topic of discussion within the industry and is already widely recognized as one of the key trends driving its evolution. Among the many gaming platforms, OPPO is a pioneer in establishing a new ecosystem paradigm based on “mobile games + mini-games” through cross-platform integration—a concept that goes far beyond being merely a slogan.

To accelerate the early realization of the “Cross-Device Integration” ecosystem, OPPO is leveraging its strengths in platforms and technology to the fullest and is progressively introducing a range of new features tailored to specific purposes, such as cross-account integration and “play while downloading.” From user experience to user retention, OPPO is working to reduce the burden on developers and improve efficiency in every aspect.

With just one OPPO account, players can freely switch between the mobile game and the mini-game, and all data and progress are synced in real time. What’s even more convenient is that when downloading the mobile game, you don’t have to wait for the installation to finish—you can access the mini-game version first to experience the main content.Once the mobile game installation is complete, you can follow the system’s instructions to switch to the higher-performance client with a single tap and seamlessly resume the game from where you left off.

For developers, however, the first hurdle in operating across both platforms is, without a doubt, platform compatibility. While there are currently many mini-game platforms available, it typically requires significant human resources and time for developers to complete cross-platform support.However, OPPO supports a feature that quickly converts WeChat mini-games into OPPO mini-games, allowing developers to reduce the time required for cross-platform compatibility from one month to just a few hours. This truly enables “develop once, deploy to multiple platforms,” significantly lowering the technical barriers for small and medium-sized teams.

By supporting the ecosystem functions described above, developers can easily create a virtuous cycle of “driving traffic and acquiring new users through mini-games, while providing a rich experience through mobile games,” thereby extending user lifetime value while minimizing declines in user conversion rates.

Currently, many game titles are operated using “cross-platform integration,” which has significantly improved overall user acquisition and monetization. According to data released by OPPO, while cross-platform users of *Three Kingdoms: Ice Age* account for only 1% of total active users, they contribute 23% of total revenue.Furthermore, the mini-game version has emerged as a new growth source for mobile games beyond app stores and game centers, accounting for 16% of total revenue and fully demonstrating the commercial value of cross-platform integration.

From the case of *Three Kingdoms: Ice Age*, which achieved nearly 10 million yuan in monthly sales through cross-platform integration,to the case of “Heroes Without Flash,” which is sustainably increasing its monthly revenue by leveraging new features, there is a growing number of examples demonstrating that the new model of the mini-game ecosystem built by OPPO has become a key factor enabling developers to break through existing market barriers and achieve further growth.

In Closing

As competition in the existing gaming market intensifies, developers can no longer rely on “luck” to achieve growth. Careful strategic planning is required at every stage, from product development to actual operations.Driven by players’ high expectations for the gaming experience and the market’s strong demand for efficiency, “high-quality gaming experiences” and “efficient operational capabilities” function like the two wheels that drive growth—both are indispensable. Furthermore, rapidly emerging new fields such as mini-games present significant opportunities to break through this intense competition.

In a situation where companies must improve the user experience, increase efficiency, and drive growth while also capitalizing on opportunities in new fields, it goes without saying that achieving all of this on their own is a daunting task.Against this backdrop, the value of the comprehensive ecosystem that OPPO has built through “mobile games + mini-games” is becoming increasingly apparent—through deep collaboration between technology and operations, it builds a bridge of symbiosis between traditional mobile games and emerging mini-games,symbiotic relationship between traditional mobile games and emerging mini-games, and by continuously bridging the gaps in experience and growth, OPPO has created a virtuous cycle in which “high-quality experiences attract users, high-value users drive business growth, and business revenue supports upgrades in research and development.”

Chakan believes that this logic of empowerment—centered on the “integrity of the ecosystem”—not only provides today’s developers with the tools to break through the current status quo but also points the way toward future growth.As technology, operations, and the scenarios across both platforms create synergies, OPPO’s gaming ecosystem is emerging as a new driving force for the industry to transcend existing market cycles, working alongside developers to forge a path toward sustainable growth within the “red ocean.”