In China, ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, published three games that immediately entered the country’s top five mobile titles by downloads, one of them taking the top spot.
All of them are third-party titles.
Xiaomei Fights the Landlord
The news came from Abacus, which cites new data from analyst firms Qimai Data and TF Securities. According to them, the following ByteDance games have made it to the top five:
- poker game Xiaomei Fights the Landlord;
- home decoration game My Home – Design Dreams;
- roguelike My Kung Fu is Exceptionally Good.
Xiaomei Fights the Landlord took the top spot by downloads. This is an adaptation of a classic Chinese poker game from the developer Yaoji Technology .
Analysts identify three reasons for its success.
- ByteDance promoted it on its platforms: Douyin (Chinese version of TikTok) and Toutiao. The multimillion audience of these services is an advantage for the publisher. The new title generated 160 million views on Douyin alone.
- The popularity of Xiaomei Fights the Landlord has to do with the tradition to play Chinese poker during Lunar New Year.
- It also helped that developer Yaoji Technology was previously a major manufacturer of playing cards in China.
Looks like ByteDance is gearing up to challenge Tencent in mobile gaming. To that effect, ByteDance has already purchased a number of gaming studios and IPs and currently employs over 1,000 developers. The publisher is planning to launch its own casual titles in China and abroad this spring.