The annual ChinaJoy (also known as the China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference), held in Shanghai between 26 and 29 July, brought together over 600 exhibitors from 31 countries and regions around the world, attracting a record high of 367K attendees. ChinaJoy is China’s largest gaming convention, with the Weibo topic #2024ChinaJoy# garnering 230 million views.
During the show, popular booths had three main features: celebrity presence, events, and the chance to try out popular games. Among them, TCL Technology’s booth gathered Samsung, Lenovo, ASUS, and many other partners to form the Screen Universe Alliance, with the Weibo topic #Star Landing Plan# (星次元登陆计划) achieving 110 million views.
As the sponsor of the League of Legends Pro League, TCL invited the famous champion TheShy and celebrity Wang Dongcheng, attracting large crowds of people around the main stage. In addition, Sony PlayStation showcased dozens of hot new games, both domestic and international, for a sneak preview, which could only be experienced at a large exhibition like ChinaJoy.
Overall, ChinaJoy exhibited several trends: Extended Reality (XR) and AI technology were popular, gaming companies were less present, and more mobile phone brands, internet brands, and even catering companies attended the show.
Firstly, there is the ‘XR rebound’ influenced by Vision Pro, with related XR games displayed at this year’s ChinaJoy. However, the XR games currently on display require extensive player immersion, some needing a large area for free walking space, others a customised cockpit, and some an entire experience room with full supporting facilities, making them unaffordable for the average consumer. There is still room for improvement with the consumer-grade XR experience.
The gaming sector has also been affected by the emergence of AI; many companies, including Ubisoft, are trying to include AI NPCs (Non-player Characters) to enable wiser and more flexible responses. Others are applying AI technology in interaction and mission design to create more dynamic and vivid game environments.
It was interesting to see that conventional gaming companies were less obvious as you were walking through the venue. Industry leaders like Game Science and miHoYo did not set up booths, and veteran manufacturers such as Perfect World and DOYU were also absent. One reason for this is the growing competitiveness in the present game industry, where manufacturers have more options thanks to several themed animation and gaming exhibits during the summer and winter holidays. Furthermore, the admission fee to take part in ChinaJoy resulted in medium-sized manufacturers choosing not to attend, considering the industry’s general cost-cutting trend.
With the expansion of ChinaJoy’s influence, it is no longer exclusively a carnival for gamers but an event encompassing many sectors such as science and technology, culture, entertainment, and finance. As a large-scale offline exhibition for general users, ChinaJoy itself is an excellent opportunity to enhance brand awareness and influence. The user groups of games and digital entertainment overlap significantly with the potential consumers of these companies. For instance, visitors to the Xiaohongshu (RED) booth could receive storage bags with ACG (Anime, Comics, Games) memes such as ‘very introverted’ and ‘Teacher, I want to collect stamps’.
