ALL THE LATEST NEWS ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF PC GAMES

News

NetEase's China Minecraft launch brings in 30m players

NetEase's China Minecraft launch brings in 30m players

Minecraft is officially out in China now and has wasted no time accumulating a massive user base.

Mojang's partner for the region, NetEase, has highlighted the game as having 30m users across PC and mobile devices as of the end of October.

The firm's online games service division brought in $1.2bn for the third quarter, a rise of 23.5 per cent year-on-year. As well as Minecraft, the company called out MMO Fantasy Westward Journey Online, which is a legacy title.

"We strengthened our portfolio in the third quarter by launching a number of expansion packs and new mobile titles," said CEO and director William Ding.

"These new launches, including our Japanese-themed RPG Index and the blockbuster title Minecraft, have been positively received, with early monetization efforts underway.

"There remain ample growth opportunities in China as we further diversify our portfolio by exploring a variety of genres. We will also look to extend our popular titles overseas in markets eager for new content and where mobile growth remains robust. In addition, our advertising services and e-commerce divisions Kaola.com and Yanxuan continue to prosper. As we invest in the growth of each of these business lines, together, they strengthen not only the NetEase brand, but our commitment to our investors and community."


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.