How to make e-sports games "produced in Shanghai" not only leading in the country, but also able to represent China and establish a global voice? Faced with this proposition, Shanghai officially issued the "Shanghai Municipal Measures to Support the Development of the Game and Esports Industry" (referred to as the "Game Shanghai Ten Measures") on March 23. This document is not a scattered "policy patch", but an "action plan" with clear goals and systematic integration, aiming to transform Shanghai's strong industrial foundation into an unshakable global competitive advantage.
Where does the confidence come from? Establishing a national “leader” position
Any top-level design starts with solid soil. The reason why Shanghai was able to take the lead in promulgating such a systematic support policy comes from the hard power accumulated over many years of hard work. Looking back on 2025, Shanghai’s game and e-sports industry has delivered a brilliant report card.
Leading the industry scale. In 2025, Shanghai's online game industry achieved sales revenue of 170.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.57%, higher than the national average of 8.41%; overseas markets performed outstandingly, achieving sales revenue of 30.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.7%, higher than the national growth rate of 10.23%.
Global influence jumps. In the "2025 Global Famous E-Sports Cities Industry Development Index Ranking Report", Shanghai ranks second in the world (top 8: Seoul, Shanghai, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Tokyo, New York, Seattle). Shanghai companies won 60% of the key awards in the "Top Ten Games" selection at the National Game Industry Annual Conference; a number of "Shanghai-produced" high-quality games such as "Honkai Impact" and "Infinite Warmth" have won international awards one after another, effectively establishing the global influence of "Shanghai Original".
Institutional innovation breaks the ice. As the first pilot city in the country to carry out localized management of domestic online games, Shanghai has always adhered to the principle of "combination of decentralization and regulation with priority on service". In recent years, the number of approved online game licenses in this city has always ranked first in the country. At the same time, we focus on the "urgent, difficult and anxious" of enterprises: opening up the pre-registration channel for ICP licenses for new game companies, and has solved access problems for 63 new companies; we have won the pilot program for mini program game registration, and have completed the registration of more than 10,000 products, attracting the Alipay mini game platform to settle in Shanghai. Establishing a compliance filing path for technical testing before product launch, and has provided support for more than 6,000 games. These pioneering measures have greatly stimulated the vitality of market entities, especially small, medium and micro enterprises.
If these institutional breakthroughs are the optimization of the "soft environment", then scientific industrial layout is the support of the "hard chassis". At present, Shanghai has formed a benign ecology of "core leadership, multi-point support, and each with its own characteristics."
Xuhui District, as the core industrial carrying area, uses leading companies such as MiHoYo and Lilith as engines, contributing about 40% of the city's output value. Relying on cutting-edge forces such as Bilibili and paper folding games, Yangpu District has strong growth momentum and accounts for more than 20% of the city's output value. Jing'an District has outstanding advantages in the field of e-sports. It is home to leading e-sports companies such as Tengjing Sports and Riot Games. It is the area with the highest concentration of domestic multinational game companies.
At the same time, a coordinated development pattern supported by multiple points has also been formed: Mutong Technology, a leader in overseas expansion, is rooted in Minhang; Bok City, which has accumulated tax payments exceeding 10 billion, is deeply involved in Putuo; Century Huatong, the leader in A-share games, and its subsidiary Shengqu Games have their headquarters in Pudong, and NetEase's Shanghai R&D center is located in Qingpu. This benign ecology with unique characteristics and complementary advantages has laid a solid foundation for the city to further optimize its industrial layout and build a world-class industrial cluster.
How to break through? The "Shanghai Ten Articles" are precisely implemented
With a solid foundation and a clear layout, the "Ten Guides for Traveling to Shanghai" will focus on the core elements and key links of industrial development, striving to achieve precise "point-and-point" breakthroughs.
Upgrading space: from “physical agglomeration” to “ecological incubation”. In the three core areas of Xuhui, Yangpu and Jing'an that have formed agglomeration effects, financial support of up to 5 million yuan per year will be provided to qualified industrial parks and incubators, and the three districts will be guided to formulate supporting support policies. Actively cultivate and introduce full-chain ecological enterprises such as art, music, and IP operations in the agglomeration area, provide start-up teams with one-stop services and a new space supply model of "creation + exhibition + life", and strive to build a nest to attract talents. While focusing on supporting core agglomeration areas, we also encourage other qualified areas to give full play to their differentiated advantages, forming a good situation of each having its own characteristics and working together to advance together.
Strong supply of factors: targeting the two major pain points of “money” and “people”. In terms of financial support, the Shanghai Game Industry Investment Fund was established to use state-owned capital to leverage social capital. The first phase of fundraising is expected to reach 500 million yuan, focusing on supporting the innovation and entrepreneurship of small and micro teams; and relying on mechanisms such as "Cultural and Creative Characteristics Sub-branches" to provide loan interest discounts to qualified enterprises, accurately solving the bottleneck of "light assets and difficult financing". In terms of talent introduction and education, we will deepen the integration of industry and education, support colleges and universities in establishing gaming majors, and provide more than a thousand internship positions for college students every year; establish a talent pool for the Shanghai e-sports industry, and strive to build a "strong magnetic field" to attract top talents from around the world.
Deep expansion of value: Empowering thousands of industries with "Game+". In terms of cultural inheritance, we encourage the creation of more "Shanghai products" that incorporate the excellent traditional Chinese culture and Shanghai urban elements. In terms of technological empowerment, the focus is on supporting the application of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence in game research and development, and supporting investment in underlying tools such as game development engines and collaborative adaptation with core hardware such as domestic graphics processors. In terms of value expansion, we vigorously implement the "Game+" strategy, support game technology in empowering medical, education and other industries, and encourage cross-border linkage with the real economy such as Shanghai's time-honored brands. By strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights, we will fully protect the continuous innovation of the industry.
The energy level has jumped again: from "products going overseas" to "standards and platforms going overseas". It is the first in the country to propose the establishment of a "game overseas service platform" to provide enterprises with full-chain, one-stop services covering product localization, legal compliance, financial payment, data analysis, etc. At the same time, it supports building ChinaJoy, China International Game Developers Conference (CIGDC) and other brand events into a "world living room" that links global wisdom, attracting more outstanding overseas companies and international organizations to develop in Shanghai. This series of combined punches aims to promote Shanghai from a single "product export place" to a strategic hub of global game and e-sports resources.
Events forge high ground: from "Grand Slam" city to "rule setter". On the basis that Shanghai has become the first "Grand Slam" city in the world to gather three top e-sports events, it will deepen its advantages by "promoting both introduction and education": on the one hand, it will continue to introduce global leading events such as DOTA2 International Invitational (TI) and provide support of up to 3 million yuan to a single project; on the other hand, it will focus on cultivating local own brand events such as the "Shanghai E-sports Masters". At the same time, by supporting the development of clubs, promoting the formulation of e-sports standards, and integrating high-quality leisure e-sports events into the public cultural service system, Shanghai will comprehensively consolidate and enhance Shanghai's core position in the global e-sports landscape.
Several measures taken by Shanghai to support the development of the gaming and e-sports industry
The game e-sports industry is an important part of the cultural industry, software and information service industry. This measure is formulated in order to further promote the construction of a "global e-sports capital", build a Shanghai cultural brand with global influence, and promote the healthy and prosperous development of our city's game and e-sports industry.
1. Create an industrial highland. With Caohejing and West Bund in Xuhui, Dachangzhi and Binjiang in Yangpu, Daning and Shibei in Jing'an as core functional areas, we will build a gaming and e-sports industry cluster with world influence and leadership. For industrial parks and incubators with strong supporting policies, complete public services, abundant resource introduction, certain industry influence and service effectiveness, support of up to 5 million yuan per year will be provided. Explore the space supply model of "creation + display + life" to further reduce the cost of entrepreneurial enterprises.
2. Build a springboard to go to sea. Support the construction of game overseas service platform, and provide precise services in copyright services, overseas guidance, risk warning, overseas promotion, data analysis, payment settlement, credit insurance and credit, etc. Support of up to 2 million yuan will be provided for the construction of comprehensive platforms, and support of up to 500,000 yuan per year will be provided for supporting special services. The agglomeration area should be equipped with a special service window for going overseas, provide low-cost cross-border network services, and provide financial incentives for high-quality overseas projects.
3. Build up the Shanghai brand. Guide the integration of excellent traditional Chinese culture into gaming and e-sports products to reflect the characteristics of Shanghai city. A reward of up to 2 million yuan will be given to original high-quality games with independent IP. Promote the exploration and establishment of a scientific intellectual property evaluation system based on the market value of the game industry, crack down on infringement and illegal activities such as private server cheats and leaks of trade secrets, and protect and encourage industrial innovation.
4. Strengthen technological empowerment. Support game and e-sports companies to establish R&D institutions around artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and other technologies, increase R&D investment, strengthen technology application, increase support for innovative applications of AI in game R&D and other aspects, and support for game development engines, three-dimensional modeling software and other basic game development tools, and provide financial subsidies of up to 30% for project investments that can be included in the scope of support. Encourage joint research and development adaptation with domestic graphics processors, and actively promote the application of blockchain technology in copyright registration, rights protection, transactions, settlement and other fields. Promote the establishment of partnerships between game companies and electronic equipment manufacturers to explore more possibilities for the development of multi-terminal games.
5. Promote international cooperation. Give full play to the agglomeration advantages of multinational game companies and promote multinational game companies to deepen cooperation among all parties. Actively build a long-term cooperation mechanism with overseas game and e-sports industry organizations and international game service agencies, and strive to create a "world living room" for the game and e-sports industry such as China International Digital Interactive Entertainment Exhibition, China International Game Developers Conference, Global E-sports Conference, and China Game Industry Annual Conference. Support the holding of various high-level game award projects and international industry events such as the China Game Innovation Competition. Each year, a maximum of 3 million yuan of support is provided to a single project.
6. Improve the industrial ecology. Cultivate the Shanghai game distribution platform to become bigger and stronger. Support the agglomeration area to introduce supporting policies, and attract more outstanding overseas gaming and e-sports companies and international industry organizations to develop in Shanghai with high-quality services, an open attitude, and stable expectations. Actively cultivate and introduce creative, design, art, music, professional media, technology, and IP development and operation enterprises to optimize and enhance the entire chain ecology. The agglomeration area has formulated "Measures to Support New Game Enterprises" to provide "one-stop" services for start-up enterprises.
7. Implement “Game+” in depth. Amplify the spillover effect of the game industry and support game e-sports companies to use their technical expertise and gamification mechanisms to empower fields such as medical care, education, media, sports, tourism, design, traditional manufacturing, and new infrastructure. Efforts will be made to build a new paradigm for the integrated development of cultural, commercial, tourism and sports exhibitions, support the cross-border linkage between game and e-sports companies and Shanghai time-honored brands, and support the creation of new themed consumption scenarios and brand activities for game IP. Provide support of up to 2 million yuan to innovative and leading projects.
8. Improve financial support. The Shanghai Game Industry Investment Fund was established to focus on supporting the innovation and entrepreneurship of small and micro teams. Relying on the "Cultural and Creative Characteristics Sub-branch", a green channel for loans will be established for gaming and e-sports enterprises, providing preferential policy guarantees, and providing interest discount support for bank loans not exceeding 50% of the market quoted interest rate for loans in the same period.
9. Optimize talent training. Support qualified colleges and universities to establish game and e-sports related majors, and support school-enterprise cooperation to jointly build industry-education integration laboratories. Promote the Shanghai Online Game Industry Association to work with relevant universities to establish an internship mechanism for college students in the gaming and e-sports industry, providing more than 1,000 internship positions for college students every year. Relying on the key cultural and creative enterprise database and agglomeration area policies, support the introduction of international and domestic high-end professional talents, establish an outstanding talent pool for Shanghai's e-sports industry, and provide guarantee services such as settling in for outstanding talents.
10. Improve the level of the e-sports industry. Accelerate the cultivation of local events, create a private brand event system with global influence, continue to introduce top international e-sports events, and help build a global e-sports capital. A single project will be supported with up to 3 million yuan. Strengthen industrial research and achievement transformation, promote the construction of e-sports standard system, and provide support of up to 500,000 yuan for a single project. Support the development of e-sports clubs, and provide rewards to clubs that participate in important international and national e-sports events and achieve superior rankings. Support the inclusion of leisure puzzle and virtual sports e-sports events into the city’s public cultural service system. Enhance the level and influence of the Shanghai E-sports Masters and create a global e-sports event.
Relevant municipal policies are supported in accordance with the principle of priority and non-duplication. Encourage relevant districts to provide supporting policies. This measure is valid for five years from the date of issuance.
