At this year's Gamescom, which Chinese games took center stage?

From August 26 to 30, the 2026 Gamescom in Cologne came to a successful close.

As the world’s largest in-person gaming expo, this year’s Gamescom once again set a new record:For the first time ever, every available booth was sold out. The massive 233,000-square-meter exhibition space brought together more than 1,600 exhibitors from 67 countries around the world, with both on-site attendance and industry attention reaching all-time highs.

At this global gaming extravaganza, Chinese games once again demonstrated their strong presence and influence.It is reported that the number of Chinese game developers participating in the event has reached a new high this year. Unlike previous years, when they merely dipped their toes into the market with sporadic appearances, Chinese developers are now fully integrating into this world-class gaming extravaganza with independent, fully-fledged booths, major new titles developed in-house, and immersive in-person hands-on experiences.

Today, the Teahouse will take you on a “virtual tour” of Cologne to see what kind of standout titles the wildly popular Chinese game booths have to offer.

01

Hugely Popular Chinese Games

• Tencent

At this year’s Gamescom, Tencent once again made a grand appearance with a massive exhibition area; the ToB booth alone covered 700 square meters, and when combined with the exhibition area for its international gaming brand, Level Infinite, the total area exceeded 1,000 square meters.

The lineup of games on display included not only four titles from the *Honor of Kings* IP, but also *Grain’s Lilliput* and *Lock Kingdom: World*.During the opening night ONL event, the international server of *Lock Kingdom: World* released a brand-new trailer and officially announced that the first global closed beta test will begin on October 27, 2026.

Level Infinite, Tencent’s international gaming brand, showcased several major titles available for hands-on play, including *Control: Resonance*, *Dune: Awakening*, and *Hunt: Showdown 1896*.*Tide of Oblivion*, a Chinese single-player game backed by Tencent, also participated in this year’s event, offering its first-ever in-person overseas hands-on demo in Hall 6.

In addition to its main booth, Tencent partnered with numerous studios from around the world to host a collaborative game art exhibition titled “Worlds of Play: The Game Art Exhibition” during the same period as Gamescom. The exhibition featured 41 well-known titles from China and abroad, showcasing the convergence and clash of Eastern and Western game aesthetics.

• NetEase

NetEase Games also showcased several major titles at this year’s Gamescom, with flagship titles such as *Marvel Clash*, *The Forgotten Sea*, and *Sixteen Sounds of Yan Yun* making a collective appearance, all of which were available for hands-on demos at the event.In addition to its consumer-facing (ToC) booth, NetEase’s business-to-business (ToB) booth was equally impressive: titles such as *Seven Days World* and others were available for media and industry peers to try out.

The studio’s highly anticipated new anime-style urban open-world game, *Infinite*, unveiled a brand-new in-game trailer on the ONL main stage and officially announced a release date of January 15, 2027, making it one of the most talked-about new Chinese titles at this year’s Gamescom.

• miHoYo

At this year’s Gamescom, miHoYo made a strong showing with a massive, high-end standalone booth, securing a 660-square-meter space in Hall 6.1. Combined with its business exhibition area in Hall 4.2, the company achieved a comprehensive exhibition layout that simultaneously served both consumer (ToC) and business (ToB) markets.

In addition to the wildly popular *Genshin Impact*, *Honkai: Star Rail*, and *Zero Zone*, two new titles from miHoYo—*Star Cuckoo Valley* and *Honkai: Fate Spirit*—also made their offline debuts.Among them, *Star Cuckoo Valley* unveiled a brand-new trailer on the ONL stage, officially announcing that its “Connection Test” will begin on September 20 and confirming a release this winter.

At the ONL opening night, miHoYo’s new UE5 masterpiece, *The Knot of Origin*, made its global debut as the first title unveiled at the event. With its stunning visuals and unique world-building, the game garnered high anticipation from players and the industry worldwide as soon as it was revealed.

• Bilibili Games

In contrast to the full-category strategies of major companies, Bilibili made its debut at this year’s Gamescom as an indie game publisher, showcasing its critically acclaimed title *Escape from Duckov*. The booth featured a minimalist design centered around the iconic Big Yellow Duck as its core visual symbol, and included dedicated demo stations where attendees could try the game for themselves.Notably, *Escape from Duckov* was also nominated for the “Most Entertaining Game” award at this year’s Gamescom.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. More booths featuring domestic games are scattered throughout the various exhibition halls, each showcasing major titles and hands-on demos, collectively forming a Chinese presence at this year’s Gamescom that cannot be overlooked.

02

Global Business Starts with a “Handshake”

For gamers, the keywords for Gamescom are hands-on demos, world premieres, and cheers; for game developers, the event’s greater value lies in face-to-face connections. In the B2B exhibition area, Chinese game companies engaged in frequent exchanges with overseas publishers, platforms, distribution channels, media outlets, and technology partners.A business card, a product demonstration, or a scheduled follow-up meeting—any of these could serve as the starting point for a product’s entry into a new market.

It was during this very exchange that Tea House happened to come across the AWS for Games booth, where local industry experts were engaging with Chinese game developers looking to expand overseas.Rather than simply being a technology booth, it served as a bridge connecting the Chinese gaming industry with the global ecosystem: on one end, it provided global cloud infrastructure, gaming-specific services, and generative AI capabilities to support games from development and launch through ongoing operations;on the other end, it leverages Amazon Web Services’ global team and partner network to help Chinese game developers access local technical, commercial, and industry resources.

For teams expanding overseas, Amazon Web Services offers more than just “a cloud”; it provides the certainty needed to bring Chinese games to the global market and establish a long-term presence in local markets.

03

Chinese games going global are entering a new phase of “long-term development”

This year’s Gamescom sent a clear signal: the competitive focus of Chinese games going global has shifted from “taking products overseas” to “taking root locally”—effectively promoting products in a way that resonates with global players, capitalizing on market momentum through stable technology and refined operations, and truly integrating into the local industry’s “circle of friends.”From “testing the waters at individual points” to “systematic, in-depth cultivation,” and from “product launch” to “refined operations,” the global expansion of Chinese games has entered uncharted waters.

This new phase places new demands on foundational capabilities: cross-regional, low-latency deployment; real-time data response; and multi-market compliance frameworks—each step is a major challenge. Currently, 22 of the world’s top 25 game companies have chosen Amazon Web Services (AWS) as their technology foundation, fully demonstrating AWS’s proven capability to support the large-scale global expansion of Chinese games:

• Global Infrastructure: 39 geographic regions and 123 availability zones (16 of which are in Asia and 107 in non-Asian regions), covering key hubs such as Europe, North America, Asia, and South America, and easily handling elastic scaling requirements for millions of concurrent users across more than 10 regions.
• Compliance Support: Supports over 140 international security and compliance certifications (including the European GDPR, U.S. COPPA, and South Korea’s K-ISMS), with local compliance experts stationed in each region. A single cloud architecture adapts to standards across multiple countries, eliminating the need for vendors to build separate systems and allowing them to focus their efforts on refining their products.
• AI-Accelerated Localization: Leveraging Amazon Bedrock’s generative AI capabilities, we efficiently implement multilingual localization, AI-powered NPC interactions, personalized recommendations, and intelligent customer service—reducing localization costs by more than 60% while achieving “Japan-server quality” operational standards.

Image source: Amazon Web Services website

END

Exhibitions may eventually come to a close, but globalization is a long-term endeavor. Every line, every demo, and every handshake at the Cologne booth marks the beginning of new connections between Chinese games and the world.The next step for Chinese games is not merely to be seen by the world, but to continue growing in the global market. Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides not only support ranging from cloud technology to global resources, but also the confidence for Chinese games to engage with the world.