① Since the beginning of the year, the A-share gaming sector has soared overall, with 21 out of 26 major companies recording profits of 10% or more. Kunlun Wanwei, Tom Cat, and Sanqi Interactive Entertainment lead the pack, and Century Huatong's market capitalization exceeded 150 billion yuan during the transaction. ② The fusion of fundamentals and AI technology has become the central driving force for improving valuations in the gaming sector. In a robust supply and demand scenario, companies have integrated AI across the research, test, and operations chain to achieve cost savings and efficiency gains while opening new horizons, thereby reshaping the industry's evaluation logic.
Cailian Press, January 12, Reporter Fang Yanbo: AI application track is becoming more and more popular. As one of the most mature application scenarios of AI technology, the gaming field has attracted attention from the capital market.
Game-related stocks rose across the board in the first six business days of the year. According to statistics from Cailian Press, of the 26 game companies listed on the A-share market, 21 companies' stock prices rose by more than 10%, and 6 companies recorded increases of more than 20%.
Among them, Kunlun Wanwei (300418.SZ) achieved the 20cm stoppage (limit trading stoppage) twice, and the cumulative increase rate this month reached 55.44%, leading the sector. Tom Cat (300459.SZ) and Sanki Interactive Entertainment (002555.SZ) followed closely with gains of 28.54% and 26.1%, respectively. Century Huatong (002602.SZ), a major company in the A-share gaming sector, rose 13.6%, and its market capitalization once again exceeded 150 billion yuan in today's trading.
Market sources told Cailian Press that this significant rally in gaming stocks is due not only to continued improvement in industry fundamentals, but also to recent valuation catalysts brought about by breakthrough advances in AI technology. Particularly with the enhancement of multimodal capabilities and innovative integration methods, AI is permeating from ancillary tasks such as art resources and programming to core creative areas such as gameplay and content, further expanding the potential for industry development.
The gaming industry is unanimously optimistic
In fact, since the end of last year, the market has remained generally optimistic about the gaming sector. At the time, the industry was showing clear signs of recovery, supported by favorable conditions on both the demand and supply sides.
On the supply side, the pace of license issuance in 2025 accelerated significantly, with the total number of approved licenses reaching 1,771 games, an increase of more than 20% compared to 2024 and the highest level in seven years.
On the demand side, according to the “2025 China Game Industry Report” released by the China Audio Video Digital Publishing Association, the actual revenue of China's domestic game market in 2025 reached 350,789 million yuan, an increase of 7.68% over the previous year. The user base increased by 1.35% year-over-year to 683 million users, both setting new historic records.
At the same time, policy support has been strengthened.
In December last year, the city of Shanghai announced the “Shanghai Game Industry Support Policy (10 Measures)” and announced that it would allocate special funds of 50 million yuan per year to systematically build an industry ecosystem including research and development, overseas expansion, e-sports, and intellectual property incubation. Guangzhou immediately launched its “18 Measures” with a clear aim to become one of the world's most influential e-sports cities by 2030. Prior to that, in November, Shenzhen also set the goal of becoming “China's No. 1 game export base” and launched a three-year special action plan to comprehensively accelerate the globalization efforts of local game companies.
According to interviews with multiple industry officials, the increase in the number of game license approvals for the 2025 version will result in the continued release of higher quality titles in 2026. The game market size is expected to further expand as the industry's supply and demand structure continues to improve.
Basics that resonate with AI
If improved fundamentals are the basis for the gaming sector's explosive growth, recent AI applications have become a central variable reshaping the gaming sector's valuation.
With the rapid evolution of large-scale modeling technology, AI is shifting from its role as a “tool” to its identity as a “co-creator.” Several leading gaming companies are deeply integrating AI into their R&D pipelines, significantly enhancing content production efficiency and creative boundaries.
A relevant representative from Century Huatong told Caixin that AI is currently enhancing the entire process, from research and development and testing to operation and service, greatly improving the efficiency of game development and operation.
“By leveraging AI tools, we have increased the production efficiency of certain content (2D character illustrations, scene concept art, music and sound effects, promotional videos, etc.) in our product development by 60% to 80%. A collaborative workflow of AI generation and manual optimization accelerates the output cadence of high-quality content. AI automated testing ensures quality control of game content while testing product compatibility with mainstream devices in just 2 to 3 times. It can be completed in less time and significantly reduces error rates. Our knowledgeable and intelligent customer service allows us to respond quickly and accurately respond to customer needs.”
Tencent (00700.HK) has launched an end-to-end AI tool called “VISVISE” to develop AI teammates to improve gaming experiences. NetEase (09999.HK) introduced AI-driven NPCs based on large-scale language models into games such as “Justice” and “Yanyun: Sixteen Voices,” giving players the fun of AI-based games.
Additionally, Giant Network (002558.SZ) has implemented the gaming industry's first “multi-user vs. AI agent hybrid showdown” mechanic in the game “Space Kill.” By mid-2025, the cumulative number of participating players reached millions, and a series of AI-driven gameplay features significantly increased user activity and time spent online.
“Previously, the market mainly evaluated gaming companies based on revenue and profit margin. Now, the focus has shifted to new aspects such as lower marginal costs, expanded content production capacity, and increased user engagement time brought about by AI,” the aforementioned market source told Caixin. “AI not only optimizes existing business, but also opens up new imaginative space for the integration of UGC (user-generated content) and AIGC (AI-generated content). This could be the key to the current valuation restructuring in the gaming industry.”
