How to use Games to lure Chinese consumers
China’s gaming market generated $44.2 billion in revenue in 2023, making it the world’s largest by a significant margin, according to data from Newzoo and Chinese gaming industry reports widely cited on tech platforms and financial media. Mobile gaming accounts for approximately 75% of that revenue. Honor of Kings (王者荣耀) has over 100 million daily active users. These are not numbers a marketing team can ignore. Luxury and fashion brands have been paying attention. In 2022, Boucheron collaborated with Tencent’s otome mobile game “Light and Night,” releasing a special film tied to a game character’s birthday. The official Weibo account’s promotional video reached 4.4 million views, including 135,000 from active players. That was an early experiment. By 2025, game brand collaborations in China had become a standard luxury marketing tactic, with Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Burberry, and others running similar campaigns through Honor of Kings, Genshin Impact, and other major titles.
Why Games Are a Serious Marketing Channel in China
Chinese gaming communities are not passive audiences. Players spend significant time in their game environments, develop genuine emotional connections to in-game characters, and spend money on virtual items at high rates. The market for in-game cosmetics (outfits, accessories, character skins) has grown to represent a substantial share of total gaming revenue in China.
The Boucheron example illustrates both the potential and the limits of game collaborations. Players of “Light and Night” treated the male protagonist Charlie Su as a real person, not a cartoon character. Boucheron’s association with his birthday created genuine engagement. However, the jewelry’s price point (luxury goods above $1,000) limited direct sales conversion from a game audience that skews younger. The brand gained awareness and sentiment. It did not gain immediate sales.
Brands that structure game collaborations as top-of-funnel awareness and community building investments, rather than expecting direct purchase conversion, get more accurate value from the channel. The conversion happens later, when those same players enter the high-earning years and remember the brand that was part of their gaming experience.
Major Game Brand Collaborations in China (2022-2025)
The most notable fashion and luxury brand collaborations in Chinese gaming in recent years include:
- Louis Vuitton x League of Legends: LV created in-game cosmetics for the game’s World Championship, including a trophy case and character skins. The collaboration generated substantial coverage in Chinese gaming and fashion media.
- Gucci x Tennis Clash: In-game branded outfits and accessories that Chinese gaming influencers documented extensively on social media.
- Burberry x Honor of Kings: One of the most successful luxury game collaborations in China. Burberry created exclusive in-game skins and real-world merchandise tied to the collaboration. Honor of Kings’ 100M+ daily Chinese users provided enormous reach.
- Boucheron x Light and Night: 4.4M views, 135K player engagements, and positive brand sentiment among a community that treats game characters as meaningful cultural figures.
China Gaming Market and Luxury Game Collaboration: Key Numbers
| Metric | Data | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| China gaming market revenue (2023) | $44.2B | World’s largest gaming market |
| Mobile gaming share | ~75% | Of total gaming revenue in China |
| Honor of Kings daily active users | 100M+ | Primarily Chinese players |
| Boucheron x Light and Night video views | 4.4 million | Weibo, including 135K player impressions |
| Light and Night hashtag #ThisIsVeryDG (DG example) | 634,000 views | Organic resharing on Xiaohongshu |
| Average age of mobile gamers in China | 25-35 | Primary target for accessible luxury brands |
What Brands Get Right and Wrong With Game Collaborations in China
The collaborations that work best share several characteristics. They pick games whose audience matches the brand’s target demographic. They create content that respects the game’s universe rather than just inserting a logo. They produce content worth sharing on Weibo and Xiaohongshu. And they set realistic expectations: game collaborations build cultural relevance and awareness, not direct luxury sales volume.
The collaborations that underperform typically choose games by scale rather than audience fit. A game with 50 million users in the wrong demographic produces less useful brand exposure than a game with 5 million users in exactly the right one. The Boucheron example chose well: “Light and Night” is an otome game (love simulation) played primarily by Chinese women aged 20-35 with strong interest in luxury aesthetics. The audience fit was good even if the price-to-income ratio limited immediate conversion.
How to Reach Chinese Gamers and Game-Adjacent Audiences on Xiaohongshu (RedNote)
1. Document the collaboration story, not just the product. Chinese gamers and fashion-adjacent consumers on Xiaohongshu respond to behind-the-scenes content about how a collaboration was developed. What did the brand take from the game’s world? How do the products translate the character or game aesthetic? This storytelling creates engagement that pure product posts cannot.
2. Share in-game collaboration content alongside real-world products. Posts that show the in-game cosmetics alongside the physical merchandise or inspiration tell a coherent story across both worlds. Chinese consumers who follow both gaming and fashion content see the connection and share it across their networks.
3. Work with gaming-adjacent KOLs, not just fashion KOLs. Xiaohongshu has a growing community of creators who cover the intersection of gaming, fashion, and lifestyle. These accounts have audiences that follow both worlds and are specifically interested in brand collaborations. A post from one of these creators reaches a pre-qualified audience for game brand collaboration content.
4. Create limited-edition physical products tied to the game collaboration. Chinese consumers who play the game and follow the brand respond strongly to physical collectibles, limited edition packaging, or special product lines that reference the collaboration. These items generate strong Xiaohongshu content as consumers document their purchases.
5. Target the post-purchase share moment. Chinese consumers who buy collaboration products share them on Xiaohongshu as a form of self-expression and community participation. Design the unboxing and packaging experience to generate strong post-purchase content. The consumer’s own content is the most credible advertising the brand can get.
How to Reach Chinese Gamers on Douyin
6. Partner with gaming live streamers for product placement. Chinese gaming live streamers on Douyin have large, engaged audiences who watch their favorite creators for hours. A product placement or brand mention during a live gaming session reaches a captive audience in a context where the creator’s credibility transfers to the brand.
7. Create short videos that cross gaming and brand aesthetics. Douyin videos that blend game visuals with real product visuals, using the game’s audio, aesthetics, or character references, perform well in the gaming content feed. These require creative work but reach audiences that standard fashion advertising never touches.
8. Run character birthday campaigns through gaming community channels. Chinese gaming communities celebrate character birthdays as genuine cultural events. A brand collaboration announcement timed to a beloved character’s in-game birthday, as Boucheron did, reaches the highest-intent segment of the game’s community at the moment of peak engagement.
9. Use Douyin’s hashtag challenge mechanics tied to game communities. Douyin hashtag challenges that invite gamers to share their collaboration purchases or recreate game aesthetics with brand products generate user-generated content at scale. The gaming community’s participation ethic makes these challenges more likely to spread organically than in other content categories.
Example Found on Chinese Web (Translated)
“When Burberry did the Honor of Kings collaboration, I bought the real scarf. I have the in-game skin and the physical product. I’m not someone who buys luxury goods normally. But that combination made it feel like it was made for me. I’ve worn the scarf probably 20 times and always remember where I got it and why. That’s not how I feel about most things I own.”
— Xiaohongshu post from a Chinese gamer and fashion-adjacent consumer, 2024, discussing the Honor of Kings x Burberry collaboration
FAQ
How big is China’s gaming market?
$44.2 billion in 2023, the world’s largest. Mobile gaming represents about 75% of total revenue. Over 700 million Chinese people play games regularly. Major titles like Honor of Kings, Genshin Impact, and Peace Elite have daily active user bases in the tens to hundreds of millions.
Do game brand collaborations in China drive direct sales for luxury brands?
Not primarily. The conversion from game player to luxury buyer is indirect and long-term. The value is in cultural relevance, awareness among a demographic that will grow into purchasing power, and social media content generated by engaged gaming communities. Direct sales of collaboration-specific products (limited merchandise, game-themed accessories) convert more directly.
Which Chinese games are best for luxury brand collaborations?
It depends on the audience. Honor of Kings for broad reach with 25-35 year-old Chinese consumers. Light and Night and other otome games for luxury-adjacent women aged 20-35. Genshin Impact for global reach and fashion-forward aesthetic alignment. The game’s audience profile should match the brand’s target demographic closely.
How should a brand structure a game collaboration in China?
Define the objective clearly (awareness, cultural relevance, specific demographic reach). Match game selection to demographic, not just scale. Create content that respects the game’s universe. Produce limited physical products alongside in-game elements. Plan the Xiaohongshu and Douyin content strategy around the collaboration’s key moments. Set realistic conversion expectations.
We track China’s gaming and consumer culture trends on our LinkedIn page. Follow us for updates on brand collaborations and emerging channels in the Chinese market.
Game Collaborations Are One Part of a China Brand Strategy. We Build the Whole Thing.
Gaming brand collaborations work best as one element of a broader China presence. A brand that does a collaboration with no Xiaohongshu presence, no Baidu search visibility, and no live commerce capability wastes most of the awareness the collaboration generates. We help brands build the full ecosystem: platform presence, content strategy, live commerce, KOL relationships, and individual campaign executions like game collaborations that feed into a coherent long-term brand presence in China. If you want to build something serious in the Chinese market, let us show you what that looks like.
Contact us to discuss your brand’s China market strategy.
Pedro Wang is the founder of Chinese Tourists Agency, with 15 years of experience helping international brands reach Chinese consumers through digital, social, and cultural marketing channels including gaming collaborations, KOL programs, and e-commerce.
