ChinaJoy 2026: What Western Game Studios Should Expect from China’s Gaming Market

As ChinaJoy 2026 opens in Shanghai, hundreds of thousands of attendees are arriving for one of Asia’s largest gaming and digital entertainment exhibitions.

‍Last year ChinaJoy 2025 hosted 410,300 visitors over 4 days! 

If you've never heard of ChinaJoy before, it's much more than a consumer gaming expo. It's one of the world's largest gaming industry events, where developers, publishers, investors, media, creators, and hundreds of thousands of passionate players come together under one roof - hosted at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre from July 31st to August 3rd.

So what does this event in China’s Magic City 魔都 have in store for those working hard or playing hard?

ChinaJoy 2026

The Biggest for B2B, and for B2C

Expecting to build on the record-breaking attendance of more than 410,000 visitors of ChinaJoy 2025, the 23rd China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference is set to welcome close to 900 exhibitors, including 275 foreign firms from 39 countries and regions based on ChinaJoy's website. It's one of the best places to discover new games, meet potential partners, and get a real feel for what's happening in the Chinese gaming market. 

ChinaJoy features both B2C and B2B exhibition halls, with two conferences also running that focus on game development and digital entertainment. It goes beyond just digital entertainment and gaming too - with exoskeleton rental available in W5 of the B2B halls. 

ChinaJoy 2026 will be the third consecutive year Huqiao Games has attended and will be present at booth G692 throughout the exhibition, supporting 7 international partners through 6 booths, to connect with Chinese players through localization, marketing, and community building. The packed halls, nonstop meetings, real player feedback, and creator conversations, just to name a few, now form a familiar rhythm for the team. 

‍The Huqiao Games Team Line-Up

Leading the team to Shanghai will be Huqiao Games founder, Wojtek Jaworski, alongside our Managing Director, John Kavvouras. They will be joined by six China-based Huqiao team members.

Wojtek Jaworski, with over 15 years in the gaming industry and having founded Huqiao Games back in 2021, recently provided a thorough run-down of what publishers and developers need to know before diving into the Chinese market in a GamesIndustry.biz article.

If you're attending ChinaJoy this year, thinking over your game launch, or simply want to chat about the market and how it works, come by the booth to connect with our team.

Supporting 7 partners across 6 booths at ChinaJoy 2026

Our six booths are all located in ChinaJoy’s B2C Games Hall N1, showcasing 7 different games across various genres - giving the games a direct way to meet Chinese players, gather reactions, and start building local visibility from the show floor.

The Spell Brigade by Bolt Blaster Games & It Works: Electronics Repair Simulator by Games Incubator

Huqiao Games' main booth is located at G692 with two PCs for players, to team up for chaotic co-op fun in The Spell Brigade by Bolt Blaster Games, and to repair and restore electronics in It Works: Electronics Repair Simulator by Games Incubator.

The Spell Brigade is an online co-op, Survivors-like bullet heaven game for 1 to 4 players, and has grown its exposure on platforms like Bilibili since working with Huqiao Games. It Works: Electronics Repair Simulator is a simulation game where the player acts as the owner of an electronics workshop, and has been working with Huqiao Games since 2025. It has since garnered over 20 million views on Douyin as a result of Huqiao’s influencer outreach efforts, alongside other successes.

Abyssus by The Arcade Crew / Dotemu

The Arcade Crew / Dotemu’s Abyssus is located at booth G196 with two PCs and one TV for players to explore the dark underwater action. Abyssus is a fast-paced cooperative first-person shooter (FPS) and roguelite brinepunk adventure. This is also not their first ChinaJoy, as they secured an exclusive booth with Huqiao Games support prior to the game’s global launch, indicative of the necessity for a long-term, localized presence.  

How Many Dudes? (多少兄弟?) by Butterscotch Shenanigans

At booth G197, players can finally test the important question: how many of them would it take to beat up a gorilla? That question belongs to How Many Dudes? (多少兄弟?) by Butterscotch Shenanigans, a strategic roguelike autobattler full of game-breaking synergies, chaotic decisions, and two PCs ready for ChinaJoy players to jump in.

Huqiao Games has previously worked with Butterscotch Shenanigans on Crashlands 2, helping expand its visibility on Chinese social media platforms like Bilibili and Douyin, and is delighted to help bring another of its titles to the Chinese market.

Soulstone Survivors by Game Smithing

Game Smithing’s Soulstone Survivors, a fast-paced action roguelite, can be found at G198 with three PCs and one TV for players to survive endless enemy waves, and began working with Huqiao Games in 2023. By building greater localized communication through Bilibili and Heybox, the Chinese share of global sales increased significantly, highlighting the difference between a 'translated' game, and a 'hit' game. 

Haunted Paws by Lazy Flock

Lazy Flock’s Haunted Paws, a cozy co-op horror game, is based at G393 with two PCs for players to solve puzzles alongside adorable ghostly companions. We look forward to introducing Haunted Paws, an indie creation by LazyFlock’s two developers, to the Chinese games industry and its gamers, as part of the marketing and business development service Huqiao Games offers.

WTF - Waifu Tactical Force by Extremely Normal Studios

Extremely Normal Studios’s WTF - Waifu Tactical Force, an anime-style first-person tactical movement shooter, is located at booth G397 with two PCs for players. Having run a pre-Alpha playtest recently in June, the game now plans to come to Early Access on Steam soon, so attending ChinaJoy 2026 with Huqiao Games is the perfect opportunity to start building anticipation for the game’s full launch in 2027.

Real Feedback from ChinaJoy to Western Studios: What Your Chinese Players Want to Tell You

As part of our main questline at ChinaJoy 2026, Huqiao Games will be collecting real Chinese player insight through interviews and activities with gamers that visit the booths to boost interaction between Chinese players and the teams behind each game! 

Messages from Chinese Gamers

At Booth G692, visitors will be able to leave messages for the games, developers, publishers, studios, and teams they admire. Visitors will be encouraged to leave all manner of messages and feedback, from sending support to the creators to a bug they may have found, as the aim of the activity is to both facilitate cross-border communication, and ensure Chinese fans are made a part of the game’s global community.

It might be a thank you. It might be a feature request. It might be a memory from hundreds of hours in-game. It might even be a bug report, because players are generous like that.

Our team will translate selected messages into English and share them with the relevant global game teams through Huqiao Games’ Western social media channels.

The goal is simple: bring Chinese player voices closer to the people behind the games they care about.

But we’re not stopping at the booth.

ChinaJoy Player Insights 2026

At the same time across the ChinaJoy venue, we will look inside the Chinese player minds by interviews to get useful and practical insights about recent game industry trends, how and where they discover new games, what makes them start or stop to play a game, and the worst localization mistakes Western games can make. 

For global game teams, this is where ChinaJoy becomes more than an event. It becomes a live player research map, full of signals about what works, what gets ignored, and what players in China actually care about.

You can find Huqiao Games at Booth G692, which will also serve as a meeting point for influencers, partners, and teams interested in bringing their games closer to Chinese players.

ChinaJoy Exhibition Halls and Conferences at a Glance

ChinaJoy is not just one giant expo hall full of game booths, although there is plenty of that too. 

As mentioned above, ChinaJoy has exhibition halls and conferences running in tandem.  The event runs across B2C halls, B2B business areas, indie showcases, developer conferences, and themed zones, which makes it useful for different kinds of teams depending on what they want to learn, test, or build in China.

B2B Business Halls at ChinaJoy 

INDIE GAME Area

The 2026 ChinaJoy-Game Connection INDIE GAME Area event will be held from July 31 to August 2 in the B2B Area (Hall W4) of the Shanghai New International Expo Centre. Since its establishment in 2021, the INDIE GAME Area has attracted attention from thousands of indie game developers worldwide. Each edition of the event has successfully uncovered promising indie projects, helping developers secure business opportunities and enabling games to be successfully completed and launched.

Conferences at ChinaJoy 2026

CDEC - China Digital Entertainment Congress (30/7 - 31/7)

As the premier and most authoritative international event in China's digital entertainment sector, this conference offers a forward-looking perspective on the key industries shaping the future of digital content. CDEC conferences will explore the cutting-edge developments in games, artificial intelligence, e-literature, micro-dramas, and animation. It provides a vital platform for communication and cooperation among industry professionals.

CGDC - China Game Developers Conference (31/7 - 1/8)

‍China Game Developers Conference (CGDC) has been successfully running for 19 years, bringing together outstanding game developers from both China and around the world to share the latest in game design, development insights, and technological achievements. CGDC is committed to fostering a global platform where developers can connect, learn, and collaborate.

B2C Interactive Entertainment Halls at ChinaJoy

ChinaJoy Express Demo Zone

Designed specifically for global game developers — especially small and medium-sized overseas teams — ChinaJoy Express offers a streamlined entry point to exhibit and a platform to engage directly with players. Supported by targeted media coverage and community promotion, it enables developers to effectively reach China's core gaming audience.

‍Hardcore Game Area

‍At ChinaJoy Hardcore Game Area, numerous top-tier blockbuster hardcore game masterpieces from around the world will gather here, enabling passionate hardcore gamers to experience the latest, most popular, and top-quality, high-tech, world-renowned hardcore games on the global gaming market up close! The exhibition zone layout places greater emphasis on gaming experience, striving to attract more core gamers to participate.

Thinking about ChinaJoy 2027 or WePlay 2026? 

Start with our FREE China Market Assessment!

For China’s gaming industry, the two domestically hosted events that rank top in priority are ChinaJoy and WePlay. Huqiao Games has written about how to make the most of these two events, so you may want to read this article first to understand more about ChinaJoy’s position and purpose within China’s gaming events before continuing.

If you’re getting the feeling ChinaJoy needs to be added to your 2027 gaming industry event calendar, a great first step is to try out Huqiao Games’ FREE China Market Assessment Tool.

With the estimated number of gamers in China close to the 700 million mark, with around 300 million of them on PC, having the right guidance to carve out your own space can be crucial to success. Joining a collective booth at an event alongside other international developers and studios can be just the right step to bring your game to China’s lively and passionate gaming industry.

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