How did this Shenzhen-based gaming company make its fortune—by giving employees luxury cars worth millions?

On February 4, the first day of spring, a day when all things come to life, a convoy of moving trucks from Bifan Entertainment pulled into the East Tower of the COFCO Qianhai Innovation Center amidst the office buildings of Qianhai Bay in Nanshan District, Shenzhen. The 2,000-square-meter office space marks another milestone in the development of this gaming company, which has been in operation for less than six years.

But what drew even more attention than the move was the perks at Bifan Entertainment’s annual party: in addition to generous prizes such as high-end electronics and gold, the CEO’s Special Award directly presented six luxury cars—with a total value exceeding 2 million yuan—to key employees as the highest form of recognition for the company’s core talent.

This typically low-key Shenzhen-based game developer has finally, as the year draws to a close, revealed its true capabilities in the most direct and spectacular way possible.

01

The Low-Key Leader of the Two-Wheel Racing Circuit

While many people may not be familiar with Bifan Entertainment, chances are you’ve come across its ads or played one of its games. In recent years, the company has focused on the match-3 game sector, launching a string of hit titles that have each generated over 100 million yuan in revenue, making it the undisputed leader in China’s match-3 game market.

When it comes to match-3 games, Beijing Lemon Microfun is a name that cannot be overlooked. In the second half of 2022, Lemon Microfun launched two titles, *Gossip Harbor* and *Seaside Escape*, which achieved impressive results in overseas markets. These successes not only established the company’s global reputation but also demonstrated to the industry the immense potential of the match-3 genre.

The following year, Bifan Entertainment launched *Modification Battle*, a self-developed and self-published hybrid game, on domestic casual gaming platforms. *Modification Battle* was heavily influenced by overseas hits, a fact evident in its content: from its Western-style cartoon visuals and female-led underdog-to-heroine storyline to its core gameplay mechanics—which combine board-based match-three puzzles, home renovation, and story unlocking—it bears a striking resemblance to popular titles like *Gossip Harbor*.

Fortunately, this well-established product concept has proven equally popular among domestic players. In its first month after launch, *Tune-Up Battle* topped the WeChat Mini Games popularity chart and broke into the Top 10 of the revenue chart. Over the following two years, even in the face of fierce competition from both new and established titles, the game has consistently remained in the Top 100 of the revenue chart, demonstrating strong long-term operational resilience.

According to reports, the product’s daily revenue has now surpassed 1 million yuan, with over 100 million cumulative users and total revenue exceeding 800 million yuan. It has not only become a benchmark in the match-3 mini-game sector but has also charted a clear path forward for Bifan Entertainment. Since then, Bifan Entertainment has remained firmly committed to deepening its focus on the match-3 genre.

In 2024, while *Modification Battle* continued to generate steady revenue, Bifan Entertainment achieved another breakthrough: it successfully secured official licensing from Tencent and MetaCore Studio (a subsidiary of Supercell) to officially launch the mini-game version of *Merge Mansion* in China.

As a pioneer in the global merge-style mobile game genre, *Merge Mansion*, launched in 2020, has long been a global sensation. By 2024, the game’s cumulative global revenue had exceeded 1.5 billion yuan; however, after four years of operation, its revenue growth has begun to slow. Meanwhile, the domestic market has also seen the emergence of several popular merge-style games, and the market environment has become increasingly mature.

By entering the domestic market at this time, the game not only avoids the initial costs of market education but also leverages the strong reputation of the classic title to open up new avenues for growth. Consequently, as expected, the mini-game version has consistently ranked at the top of the charts since its launch. This performance has further expanded Bifan Entertainment’s product portfolio and solidified its leading position in the domestic two-player mini-game sector.

By 2025, after more than two years of intense competition and rapid iteration, the domestic casual mobile game market had entered a phase of fierce competition for existing users. However, just when the industry widely believed the market was reaching saturation and unlikely to produce another breakout hit, Bifan Entertainment—leveraging its extensive experience, precise judgment, and the influence of popular IPs—once again developed a breakthrough title, *The Good Life*.

As a benchmark for domestic "slow-paced" variety shows, *The Ideal Life* has topped the ratings in its time slot for seven consecutive seasons, with cumulative views across all platforms exceeding 20 billion. The latest eighth season has already surpassed 3.1 billion views (Source: Maoyan Professional Edition), demonstrating immense national popularity and appeal.To fully harness the influence of this national IP, Bifan Entertainment has created a spin-off mini-game that deeply recreates the show’s unique, soothing atmosphere and sense of everyday life through multiple dimensions, including scene recreation, storyline continuity, and character development.

They also invited variety show host Peng Yuchang to serve as the game's spokesperson

Thanks to its highly immersive IP adaptation and robust content development capabilities, the *The Ideal Life* mini-game took the market by storm upon its launch, attracting a large number of casual gamers and variety show viewers alike.The game’s cumulative registered users across all platforms quickly surpassed 20 million, successfully breaking into the top 3 on WeChat Mini Games’ popularity chart. Thanks to its outstanding monetization performance, it also ranked among the top 11 on WeChat Mini Games’ revenue chart and the top 7 on Douyin Mini Games’ revenue chart, becoming the most representative new IP adaptation of 2025.

Rankings for the "The Good Life" WeChat mini-game; Image source: Gravity Engine

Bolstered by three blockbuster hits, Bifan Entertainment has built a competitive moat based on a dual-engine strategy of “in-house development + IP,” firmly establishing itself as a leader in the two-player mini-games segment and successfully ranking 31st on the 2025 Top 100 Mini-Games Companies list.

Image source: Gravity Engine

02

An Entrepreneurial Journey Fueled by Adversity

Looking solely at its performance since 2023, Bifan Entertainment’s track record of “one hit title per year” stands out as particularly impressive—and has been so smooth that it’s almost jaw-dropping. However, the company’s journey was not always this smooth sailing; behind the scenes, it has also undergone a long process of accumulation and refinement.

Li Xueyong, founder of Bifan Entertainment, is a seasoned veteran with many years of experience in the casual gaming industry. After graduating, he briefly worked at Renren, Inc., and then joined the newly established Leyou in 2010, becoming one of its early core employees.

During his time at Leyou, Li Xueyong played a key role in the publishing and operations of hit titles such as *Happy Aquarium* and *Happy Match*, rising through the ranks to become Head of the Publishing Center and gaining solid industry experience.

Particularly noteworthy among these efforts was the launch campaign for the Android version of *Happy Match*. In 2014, the mobile gaming industry had not yet adopted the model of purchasing user traffic through advertising; game distribution and promotion relied heavily on app stores, and user payment systems were relatively complex.Against this backdrop, Li Xueyong spearheaded a deep partnership with “Mobile MM,” China Mobile’s official app store at the time. Through a launch alliance, he facilitated the simultaneous release of “Happy Match” across 23 leading Android channels and fully integrated carrier billing capabilities. This laid a crucial foundation for the game’s subsequent user growth and commercial expansion.

On April 3, 2014, the day the Android version of *Happy Match* officially launched, major domestic app channels such as 360, 91, Wandoujia, and OPPO simultaneously rolled out splash screen recommendations, homepage highlights, and dedicated promotional sections. With resources from all channels focused on a single campaign, this created a spectacle of synchronized, full-scale promotion across all channels—a rare occurrence in the industry at the time.With the support of these extensive channel resources, the Android version of "Happy Match" reached 2.4 million new registered users within 15 days of its launch, with DAU exceeding 1.35 million (excluding App Store data), securing a strong start for this nationally popular game.

"Happy Match"

In 2015, having accumulated a wealth of successful experience, Li Xueyong left Leyou and founded Aofan Interactive, officially embarking on his entrepreneurial journey.

Aofan Interactive specializes in publishing high-quality mobile games, with its core team members hailing from leading game companies such as Tencent, China Mobile Games, Giant Network, and LeDoo. Shortly after its establishment, the company launched the racing mobile game *Drift for All*, which surpassed 3 million downloads within 15 days of its release. In the same year, it also acted as the publisher for the simulation management mobile game *Tycoon 2*.

Unfortunately, neither of these games generated long-term revenue for the company. Compounded by factors such as high distribution fees and rapidly rising user acquisition costs, Aofan Interactive was unable to sustain its operations and ultimately faded into obscurity amid the industry shakeout.

After wrapping up his first startup venture, Li Xueyong joined Mengdan Interactive (now JiuJiu Interactive) in 2017 as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), taking full responsibility for the company’s game publishing and monetization efforts. During his tenure, he played a key role in the development of *Pigs Are Coming*, which consistently topped the charts in markets such as Taiwan and Southeast Asia, generating monthly revenue exceeding 30 million yuan.

"The Pig Is Coming"

In 2020, Li Xueyong set out once again to establish Bifan Entertainment. During this entrepreneurial venture, companies and institutions such as Leyouzi injected nearly 10 million yuan in angel investment, while Mengdan Interactive later acquired a stake as a strategic investor. The support from his two former employers not only served as a strong endorsement of Li Xueyong’s professional capabilities but also provided the foundation for Bifan Entertainment’s steady growth.

In its early days, Bifan Entertainment focused on the casual puzzle genre, a field Li Xueyong knew best. The game *I Need to Use the Restroom*, launched with a unique and creative concept, was an instant hit with players. It successfully climbed to fourth place on the domestic App Store’s Free Chart, with monthly revenue exceeding 20 million yuan, becoming one of the company’s early flagship products.

However, this impressive start did not immediately establish a clear long-term direction for Bifan Entertainment. In the months that followed, the team continued to experiment, venturing into various genres such as puzzle games, match-three tower defense, and roguelike strategy, and released titles like *Origami Master*, *Dice War*, and *Ready Player One*. Unfortunately, none of these games managed to replicate the success of their debut title, and the overall market response was lukewarm.

In 2021, while Bifan Entertainment was exploring opportunities across various sectors, growth in the domestic mobile gaming market began to slow, yet the mini-game industry experienced a dual surge in popularity and commercialization.Early in the year, *Merge Big Watermelon* burst onto the scene, surpassing 60 million players within 10 days of launch and becoming a phenomenon that captured the nation’s imagination. Later that year, a host of new and established mini-game titles—including *Three Kingdoms All-Stars* and *Animal Restaurant*—consistently generated monthly revenue in the tens of millions, fully demonstrating the immense commercial potential and long-term viability of the mini-game sector.

With a keen sense of market trends, Bifan Entertainment officially designated the mini-game sector as its core development focus in 2022. In April of that year, the company launched its first match-three game, *Pocket Pet World*. Although the game’s initial performance was unremarkable, the team infused it with lasting vitality through consistent content updates and iterations, and the game remains in stable operation to this day.

In 2023, following the successive launches of two hit titles from Lemon Microfun, Bifan Entertainment capitalized on the R&D and operational experience gained from *Pocket Pet World* to launch *Tuning Battle*. The game became an instant hit and proved to be the key to Bifan Entertainment’s breakthrough growth.

Following this, Bifan Entertainment capitalized on its momentum to further expand its presence in the match-three game segment, launching a series of popular titles such as *Estate Match* and *The Ideal Life*. By continuously solidifying the team’s leading position in this niche market, the company has evolved from an industry follower into a market leader.

The successive launch of hit products has driven the continuous expansion of Bifan Entertainment. Today, this game company—which has been in operation for less than six years—has a team of over 170 people, with R&D staff accounting for as much as 80% of the workforce.

Today, it is clear from a series of initiatives—including the company’s move to a new location and generous rewards for talent—that Bifan Entertainment has entered a phase of rapid expansion and accelerated growth. With a clear market positioning and robust R&D and operations capabilities, Bifan Entertainment is sure to achieve even more breakthroughs in the future and bring even more surprises to casual game players.

Looking back on Bifan Entertainment’s development journey, two decisions proved to be pivotal: first, its firm commitment to the mini-games sector, and second, its focus on deepening its expertise in the match-three genre. Both choices perfectly aligned with critical turning points in the industry’s evolution. It can be said that Bifan Entertainment’s success represents, for Li Xueyong, the culmination of years of industry experience; for the company, it is the result of assessing the situation and acting in accordance with market trends.

Clearly, going with the flow and adapting to changing circumstances is the true key to success for game companies seeking to break through and thrive amid the tides of the times.