Niko found an Internet café report from Loc-cn.com via a weibo post stating that I-cafés are most relevant for gaming. Their report says that 89.4% of customers go to I-cafés for playing games, up from 76% in 2011. Other activities that are hot are movie watching and music listening. However, Niko also collects data on I-café gaming every month from 400 I-cafés in 34 cities. In our July data we learned that only 39% of the visitors to the cafés we tracked were playing games. It makes sense to assume that the majority of people going to I-cafés in China are using them for games, but in fact our data shows that it is not always the case. Email, web searching, movies, e-commerce, and music area all important. Online video has surpassed gaming as an Internet app in China (at least 2 years ago), and people tend to enjoy online videos at I-cafés too.
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RPG titles dominated China’s livestreaming landscape in August 2026, standing out as some of the month’s most-watched content. Niko Partners Learn more >
China’s video game market reached a new milestone in 2025, generating $51.8 billion in revenue, up 5.4% year-over-year and surpassing Learn more >
RPG titles dominated China’s livestreaming landscape in July 2026, standing out as some of the month’s most-watched content. Niko Partners Learn more >