Going Beyond the Chinese Market with Simplified Chinese Localization
We talk a lot about Simplified Chinese in the games industry. It’s the fastest growing games language, globally. Typically, discussions around Simplified Chinese lead to a focus on the Chinese Market. It makes sense, the Chinese games market is the most lucrative in the world and boasts over 668 million gamers, but it’s not the whole story.
Simplified Chinese doesn’t just give you access to the Chinese market, it gives you access to Chinese gamers around the globe.
The Chinese Diaspora is the world’s largest regional diaspora, with over 10.7 Million Chinese nationals living outside of China, and a further 50 million if including descendants.
The age demographics of the diaspora vary from country to country, but generally around 70 – 83% are between the ages of 15 – 64. This makes a large proportion of the diaspora a prime target for games, particularly for those on the lower end of the range. Assuming 70% fall within this age bracket means that there’s potentially 7.5 Million Chinese gamers outside of the Chinese market. For context, that’s 1.8x the number of gamers currently in the Swedish market, and 1.2x the entire population of Denmark!
Many may speak multiple languages, including English, but still may be more comfortable playing games in Simplified Chinese or with Mandarin audio. One of the most lucrative aspects of this diaspora-market is the access to Western storefronts, which is more difficult from within China. The ability to access all PC storefronts, like Steam, Epic, and GoG, comes alongside access to Consoles which generally aren’t as available in China.
The focus on Simplified Chinese and Mandarin for China can tend to make us forget that their reach extends beyond any one country.
Mandarin is an official language of Singapore, where the number of gamers is projected to reach 3 million by the end of 2025. While Singapore might not have the largest gaming population, what it does have is invested gamers.
Looking at the most recent Mobile figures available, Singapore’s Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is around $60-70, second globally only to Japan. As a comparison, China and America’s ARPU figures are around $30, half of what Singapore generates per user.
While Singaporean gamers may often play games in English, as an official language there’s still a notable number who prefer to play in Simplified Chinese.
But this isn’t the whole story even within the APAC region. Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia also have large Chinese populations, with millions of individuals whose first language is Mandarin. These countries also have extensive games markets, particularly for Mobile. Simplified Chinese localization provides another way of accessing gamers in these countries, with less monetary risk than localizing into Indonesian, Thai, and Malaysian, respectively.
The other major market this applies to is the United States. In the US there are over 2 million people who were born in China, many of whom will be enthusiastic about games. Particularly for students studying abroad, playing in their native language will still be the likely preference rather than playing in English.
In games localization we can tend to look at the world as defined markets. French localization for France, Italian for Italy, it’s nothing new. Instead, we should be looking at localization as not simply a way to access new markets, but a way to access new gamers wherever they are.
Chinese, as with many major languages, is not relegated to any one market. English doesn’t let you access every gamer in the US, just as Chinese doesn’t necessarily give you access to every player in China. The world is a far more interesting and complex market than looking at any individual country.
