Prior to *Black Myth: Wukong*, Game Science had made the list of Golden Tea Award winners with *Red Tide: The Art of War*. Before the release of *Celadon*, it was listed as an “up-and-coming company.” *This City Has Good Farmland* appeared on the lists of award winners for both casual games and mini-games.
Looking through these old lists again today, I see many familiar names—names that, back then, were part of a different story.
In September 2013, Game Teahouse was founded. Four months later, on January 18, 2014, the first Golden Tea Awards were held in Chengdu. The thirteen subsequent award ceremonies coincided with the years during which China’s mobile gaming industry transitioned from a startup boom to maturity.
In 2012, the actual revenue of China’s mobile gaming market was only 3.24 billion yuan; by 2025, it had reached 257.076 billion yuan.As the market expanded, so did the ways of making games: some developers have been operating a single title for a decade; others have expanded their businesses overseas; some have shifted their focus to PC and console games; and still others have found new users through casual games.
Traces of these changes can be found in the lists of past Golden Tea Award winners.
- Starting in Chengdu
In 2012, revenue in China’s mobile gaming market grew by 90.6% year-over-year, and the user base reached 89 million, a 73.7% increase from the previous year. Looking back today, the market was not particularly large at the time, but both revenue and the user base were growing rapidly.
The first Golden Tea Awards primarily focused on Chengdu and the southwestern region, recognizing tourism products, individuals, companies, and up-and-coming teams. By the second edition, the scope had expanded to the entire country, with both domestic and international tourism products and companies included in the selection process.
“Mobile games,” “up-and-comers,” and “going global” were terms that appeared repeatedly on the initial list.
These milestones corresponded to several major events for game companies at the time: developing their first mobile game, finding a publisher, ensuring the team’s survival, and then considering expanding overseas. Some companies that later became quite well-known first came to the attention of the Golden Tea Awards during this phase.
- Game Science: They Were Still Working on *Red Tide* When They Won the Award
In the list of winners for the 2017 Golden Tea Award for Best Mobile Esports Game, *Red Tide: Art of War* appeared alongside titles such as *Honor of Kings*, *Hearthstone*, and *Rules of Survival*.
Developed by Game Science and published by Hero Entertainment, this title initially garnered attention for its strategic combat and competitive gameplay. Seven years later, on August 20, 2024, Game Science’s *Black Myth: Wukong* officially launched on the PS5 and various PC platforms.
When people talk about Game Science today, most immediately think of *Black Myth*. But *Red Tide* is also a milestone in this team’s journey. The old roster preserves their history from before they became widely known for *Black Myth*.
From mobile esports to single-player action games, the genres, platforms, and product formats have all changed. For Game Science, the mobile gaming market it operated in back then did not limit its subsequent creative direction.
- Celadon and Paper Stacks: Keeping Our Game Going
Among the list of the “Top Ten Emerging Domestic Game Companies” for the 2015 Golden Tea Awards is a Xiamen-based company—Qingci Digital.
Later, Qingci launched *The Strongest Snail* and went public in Hong Kong on December 16, 2021.But a look at the prospectus reveals that the company had already come a long way before its breakout hit: it launched *Mystery Dungeon* in 2016, *Ares Virus* in 2018, and *The Strongest Snail* in 2020.
The story of how *Ares Virus* won the Golden Tea Award for Best Independent Game was also included in the prospectus.
These games vary in gameplay and style. If you look only at *The Strongest Snail*, it’s easy to attribute Qingci’s growth to a single hit title; but if you trace the company’s history back, you’ll see its earlier attempts.
Diedi Paper has had a similar experience.
In 2019, DiDi Paper won the Best Mobile Game Publisher award at the Golden Tea Awards. Since then, *Love & Deep Space* and *Infinite Nuan Nuan* have become its flagship titles. In August 2025, *Love & Deep Space* went on to win the Best Mobile Game award at the Gamescom.
From domestic industry awards to international trade shows, Diezi has consistently developed products tailored to its core user base while increasing investment in R&D and experimenting with new forms of expression.
The story of Qingci and Diezhi isn’t just one of a “small company that grew into a major player.” What were once considered relatively niche approaches and user needs can, after years of operation, become the backbone of a company’s core business.
- “Youth Three Kingdoms”: How Long Can a Game Last?
On the old list, some companies have gone through several rounds of product updates, while some games have remained on the list the entire time.
“Youth Three Kingdoms” was launched in 2015 and won the “Best Long-Running Game” award at the 2022 Golden Tea Awards. At the time of the award, the game was approaching its eighth anniversary.
Youzu Network’s 2022 annual report revealed that, as of that time, *Young Three Kingdoms* had accumulated over 140 million registered users and generated total global revenue exceeding 6.6 billion yuan.
These figures are the result of years of operation. After the game launches, we’ll continue to update the content, make adjustments to the versions, and constantly give existing players reasons to stay.
In an industry where new releases and hit products are constantly in the spotlight, *Youth Three Kingdoms* reminds us that there is another category of products worth paying attention to: they may not be the center of attention every year, but they have a steady user base and continue to thrive.
The Golden Tea Award has established a separate category specifically for long-term operations, focusing precisely on these products.
- From *Legend of the Bow and Arrow* to *This City Has Good Farmland*
The list of casual games changes even faster than company names.
In 2019, notable award-winning titles included *Dream Garden*, *Legend of the Bow and Arrow*, and *Travel Skewers*; in 2022, they included *Lie Back and Level Up*, *Shell Strike Force*, and *The Hot Pot Restaurant on the Road to Happiness*;In 2024, *A Home Deep in the Peach Blossom Spring* and *Heart-Fluttering Town* made their debut.
Although they’re all called casual games, the activities players engage in vary greatly: some can be played for just one round before being set aside, some involve management and character development, and others incorporate social interaction and community life into the game.
The case of *This City Has Good Farmland* is even more interesting. It appeared on the list of the best casual games of 2023 and was subsequently included in the list of outstanding mini-games of 2024.
The two awards recognized different aspects: one focused on the game genre, while the other focused on how the product operates and reaches users. The “mini-games” platform is now capable of supporting more complex content and long-term operations.
The Golden Tea Awards’ focus on this type of product did not begin just in the past two years. As early as the sixth edition of the awards, a category for “Best H5 Mini-Game of 2018” was established, and titles such as *Sword of the Archangel H5*, *Legend Has Arrived*, and *H5 Three Kingdoms Kill* were all on the list that year.
From H5 to mini-programs, the entry points for games are evolving, and developers are increasing their investment in this market. In 2025, the revenue of the domestic mini-program gaming market reached 53.535 billion yuan, a year-over-year increase of 34.39%. Of this, in-app purchases accounted for 68.11%, while advertising revenue accounted for 31.89%.
These figures are increasingly difficult to reconcile with the early perception of casual games as something you “play for a few minutes and watch a few ads.” More and more products are beginning to incorporate progression systems, content, and long-term monetization models within this platform.
- When will indie games and PC games be added to the list?
In addition to mobile games, the Golden Tea Awards have gradually expanded to include other categories.
According to the award records for the first five editions published by Game Teahouse, the Independent Game Award was not yet listed in the first three editions. The fourth edition, held on January 11, 2017, introduced the “Best Independent Game of the Year” category for the 2016 awards, with *Yesterday* serving as the representative winner that year.
The list that followed featured an ever-increasing variety of game genres. In 2017, the list included *Monument Valley 2*, *Genki Knight*, *Dream Traveler*, and *At the End: The Trial of Rebirth*; in 2018, it included *Ares Virus*, *Romance of the Three Kingdoms: The Rise of the Han Dynasty*, and *Ninja Must Die 3*.
This also shows that the indie games selected in the early years of the Golden Tea Awards were not limited to single-player PC titles; they included quite a few mobile games as well.
As for the standalone PC game category, the earliest verifiable record in currently available public information dates back to 2020. The call for entries for the 8th edition listed “Best PC Game” and “Best Indie Game” as separate categories, and *Gunfire Reborn* won the Best PC Game award that year. According to information disclosed by Duoyi Network at the time, the game surpassed one million copies sold within six months of its launch.
Later, *BlazBlue: Chaos Effect* and *Soul Mask* were named the Best PC Games of 2023 and 2024, respectively.
*The Legend of the Living Hero* documents the journey from winning an award to its official release. According to Sheng Tian Network’s 2024 annual report, this title—published by its subsidiary Paras Studio—won the “2022 Golden Tea Award for Best Independent Game” and officially launched on Steam in the second quarter of 2024.
Looking back at these lists, it’s important to distinguish between three concepts: “PC” refers to the platform, “single-player” refers to the product format, and “indie game” relates to the development and creative process. While there is some overlap among these three, they cannot simply be treated as the same category. To date, there are no reliable records of a separate award for “Best Single-Player Game,” but single-player titles have long been included in indie and PC game awards.
From *Yesterday* to *The Legend of the Living Hero*, and from *Gunfire Reborn* to *Soul Mask*, the changes in the list are quite evident: what began as a selection focused primarily on mobile games has gradually come to include more titles from various platforms and teams of all sizes.
- Going Global: From “Dragon Soaring in the Middle East” to More Markets
“Going Global” has been a category in the Golden Tea Awards for quite some time. As early as the second edition of the awards, there was already an award for “Promising Global Expansion Products and Companies.”
The list of the best overseas game companies for 2017 included Longteng Jianhe, 37 Interactive Entertainment, Youzu Network, and Zhuohang, among others. These companies subsequently took different paths.
The changes at Longteng are most evident in its name.
On December 7, 2017, the company published a notice on its official website announcing that “Longteng Middle East” had been renamed “Longteng Jianhe.” According to the explanation in the notice, the company’s business scale and organizational structure had outgrown the meaning conveyed by its original name.
The “Middle East” was once this company’s most distinctive hallmark. *The Sultan’s Revenge* drew on themes from the Arab world, incorporating cultural elements familiar to local users into a strategy game. Subsequently, titles such as *The Rise of the King* expanded the company’s reach into additional markets.
Establish a strong foothold in one region first, then expand into other markets—the name “Longteng” reflects this journey.
37 Interactive Entertainment’s overseas business, meanwhile, has found a breakthrough in the integration of gameplay.
Launched in 2020, *Puzzles & Survival* combines match-3 gameplay with strategy elements.According to 37 Interactive Entertainment’s 2024 annual report, this title has generated cumulative revenue exceeding 10 billion yuan and ranked among the top eight in Sensor Tower’s 2024 list of highest-grossing overseas mobile games. Its follow-up, *Puzzles & Chaos*, continued to evolve along the “match-3 + SLG” model.
Here, beyond distribution capabilities, figuring out how to design gameplay mechanics and attract users to the game has also become a crucial part of overseas operations.
In the global mobile gaming market during that same period, FunPlus was also a name that couldn’t be ignored. In 2019, when Game Tea House reported on App Annie’s June revenue rankings for global publishers, FunPlus topped the list, with *King of Avalon* and *Age of Muskets* having become its flagship titles.
The operation of these products continued into the future. *King of Avalon* launched a PC version in 2023, while *State of Survival* has continued to operate through content updates and IP collaborations. From initial performance at launch to version and platform expansions years later, overseas operations also require a long-term approach.
DianDian Interactive has added yet another twist to this story.
At the 12th Golden Tea Awards, DianDian Interactive was named “Outstanding Global Game Company of 2024,” *Whiteout Survival* was named “Outstanding Global Game of the Year,” and *Endless Winter* was named “Best Mobile Game of the Year.”
Prior to “Ice and Snow World,” DianDian Interactive had been operating farm and casual games for many years.According to Century Huatong’s 2024 annual report, the *Family Farm* series has amassed over 150 million cumulative users after more than a decade of operation. *Whiteout Survival* subsequently became a new source of growth, with DianDian Interactive generating approximately 15 billion yuan in revenue in 2024—a year-over-year increase of 155 percent.
In April of that same year, *Endless Winter* was launched on the WeChat Mini Games platform. The product experience gained in overseas markets was thus brought to the domestic mini-games platform.
Longteng Jianhe started in a single region; 37 Interactive Entertainment experimented with blending gameplay styles; FunPlus continued to develop strategic products; and DianDian Interactive brought its overseas experience back to China. More than a decade ago, “going global” was just a category on a list; later, each company developed its own products and business models.
- Go through the old list one more time
- An annual list captures the companies and works that were in the spotlight at the time. What happens afterward is often more interesting than the awards ceremony itself.
The up-and-coming companies of that era went public; mobile game development teams shifted to single-player games; and one older game continued to win awards even in its eighth year of operation. Some changed their company names, some switched platforms, and others continued to develop the same type of product, retaining their user base.
Game Teahouse was founded during the peak years of the mobile gaming startup boom. After 13 editions of the Golden Tea Awards, many of the early winners have come a long way, leaving behind plenty of stories worth revisiting.
The next time the list is updated, we may see some new changes. For Game Teahouse, these stories following the awards are certainly worth continuing to cover and write about.
原创文章，作者：游茶妹儿，禁止转载：https://youxichaguan.com/en/archives/212532
