With the continuous growth of the global gaming industry, in recent years, domestic single player games have become a rising star, attracting more and more attention from producers, investors, and players, demonstrating strong development potential and vigorous vitality. At the same time, domestic single player games also face many challenges. Experts suggest that policies, markets, and other aspects should be improved to help domestic games continue to develop healthily. The rapid expansion of the industry scale shows that the actual sales revenue of the domestic gaming market in 2024 was 325.783 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.53%, reaching a new high. The number of game users reached 674 million, a year-on-year increase of 0.94%, which is also the highest point in history. Outside of mobile, web, and client games, the single player gaming market saw a year-on-year growth of 55.15%. In 2017, when I first entered the industry, there was almost no PC console gaming industry in China Hu Jiangyang, the head of Thunder Games, said, "At that time, the development of mobile and online games in China was very good, but the number of practitioners in single player games may not have exceeded 50, which is not enough to be called an industry." Hu Jiangyang said that the release of the single player game "Taiwu Tujuan" in 2018 broke many people's inherent understanding of domestic games and opened up a new era. Afterwards, many producers and investors began to pay attention to the domestic single player game market. Stand alone games, as the name implies, refer to the type of games that can run on a single computer or game console device and are played by players alone or with other local players, independent of Internet connection. The main types of single player games include simulation management, role-playing, and action games. In single player games, game developers typically construct storylines, design game levels and challenges from the perspective of a single player, allowing players to immerse themselves in their own world, explore game content, complete tasks and challenges at their own pace. The origin of global single player games can be traced back to the 1970s, when computer technology became popular and provided the foundation for the birth of games. The improvement of computer hardware performance led to a golden period of rapid development for single player games in the 1990s. After 2000, there was a revolutionary breakthrough in hardware technology for game consoles and computers. The launch of a series of game consoles such as Sony and Microsoft, which support high-definition resolution and stronger graphics processing capabilities, has brought players an immersive gaming experience. Affected by overseas single player games, the research and development capabilities of domestic single player games have slightly improved around 2000. In 2016, Sony launched the "China Star Program". With the financial and resource support provided by it, domestic single player games have begun to emerge. Hu Jiangyang stated that currently, the domestic single player game market is rapidly expanding, but due to a late start, overall R&D strength is weak, and various publishing companies lack overseas market experience, they do not have an advantage in the global market competition process. Most domestic players, besides purchasing a few top domestic games, mainly buy overseas products, "he said. In 2024, the explosive popularity of "Black Myth: Wukong" marked an important turning point for the domestic single player gaming industry. According to data, as of February 2025, the total revenue of "Black Myth: Wukong" on the Steam platform exceeded 900 million US dollars, of which about 70% came from the domestic market. Most of the revenue from "Black Myth: Wukong" comes from the domestic market, which has shown many producers the huge potential of the domestic single player game market Liang Qiwei, the person in charge of Beijing Lingyoufang Network Technology Co., Ltd., said that "Black Myth: Wukong" has received four nominations for the "Game Awards" (TGA) and won the "Best Action Game" and "Player Voice" of the year, enhancing the international status of Chinese games and showcasing the superb level of Chinese game production to the world. In the single player game area of social platform Bilibili, players consider "Black Myth: Wukong" as the "first college student", and whoever can make a high-level 3A game second is the "second college student". Among them, the most popular is "Blade Zero". Liang Qiwei said that the "second college student" represents the expectations of players, and in the future, domestic single player games should be a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought competing. Shadow Blade Zero is developed based on the previous Shadow Blade series, returning to the production of single player games with the aim of returning to gameplay itself. Around the Spring Festival of 2025, while the promotional video of "Blade of Shadows Zero" made it to the hot search on Bilibili, a traditional Chinese themed simulation business game "Beacon and Kitchen Smoke" produced by a couple also gained popularity among players. Huohuawa, the producer of "Fenghuo and Chuyan", said that for a long time, the developers of this game were only the couple. "Commercial games have a fixed revenue model, and few people in China have experience in single player games, but the market for single player games is beyond doubt. This is also the reason why we have been able to persist since 2019." In fact, the current popularity of single player games is not accidental. In recent years, the literacy of gamers has continuously improved, with higher requirements and sharper discernment abilities for game content, quality, innovation, and cultural connotations. This has prompted game developers to continuously increase their investment in game research and development, enhancing the overall quality and attractiveness of China's gaming industry. In August 2024, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the High Quality Development of Service Consumption", and "online games" were mentioned in the document. At the same time, for a period of time, the review and distribution of game licenses have been stable, and the number has continued to exceed a hundred. The approval and distribution of imported licenses have also become normalized. Cai Leilei, Public Relations Director of Sony Interactive Entertainment (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., stated that the country's increasing emphasis on the cultural industry has provided a more relaxed development environment for the domestic single player gaming industry. Taking Sony as an example, the company takes the "China Star Program" as an opportunity to hold and participate in various large-scale game exhibitions, online and offline promotion activities every year, cooperate with domestic game companies, cultivate a group of game producers, attract a large number of players, and help Chinese single player games enhance their international visibility and influence. The market is vast and growth is expected. "The plate of the Chinese gaming market is very large, and more and more talented young people will join this industry in the future. As long as excellent domestic games are launched, Chinese players will never be stingy with their wallets," said Hu Jiangyang. Data shows that in 2024, Simplified Chinese users in Steam China accounted for 29.95%, with approximately 56.73 million monthly active users, an increase of about 18.73 million compared to 2023, a year-on-year increase of 49.2%, and a net growth of about half of the platform's global user growth. The consumption of Chinese players in 2024 is around 20 billion yuan. The simultaneous increase in quantity and price demonstrates the increasing popularity of domestic single player games. The continuous expansion of the market has also led to more game producers participating in the sequence of domestic single player game production. In early 2025, at the International Consumer Electronics Show in the United States, a diesel punk bunny image familiar to domestic players appeared on Nvidia's booth. This is a showcase of the new demo version of the game 'Shadow Torch City'. The injection of new technology allows players to interact directly with the mechanic rabbit in the game through voice commands, instructing it to change the paint, stickers, and other content for their spacecraft. When it comes to the development of domestic single player games in the future, Zhang Tao, the game manager of Shadow Torch City, once said that the Chinese gaming market is large enough to nurture both giant companies and small game production teams. In the future, small content and creative independent games will have good prospects. Recently, the news that the game "Lost Souls" in the first phase of Sony's "China Star Project" will be released on PS5 and computer on May 30th this year has sparked heated discussions in the gaming industry. Producer Yang Bing told reporters that "Lost Souls" was conceived in 2014. At first, there was no clear goal or direction, nor was there much market awareness or so-called user profiling. Everything was driven by a simple creative impulse to create content with personal preferences. The ten-year development cycle has gone through many difficult moments. The 'China Star Program' is a very good opportunity. Yang Bing stated that "Lost Souls" is one of the first projects of Sony's "China Star Plan". Over the past decade, it has not only received financial assistance, but also gained access to many international resources, improved its own vision, and expanded the game distribution market. The role played by Sony Interactive Entertainment in the project is not just that of an investor or technology supporter, but more like a guide. The "Lost Souls" project has gone through a ten-year development cycle, which shows Sony's patience Bao Bo, Director of Game Production at Sony Interactive Entertainment (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., said, "The company hopes to maintain long-term cooperative relationships with these game production teams, so that they can always have confidence in making high-quality games." Jiang Kou, Chairman and President of Sony Interactive Entertainment (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., said that the "China Star Plan" selected more than 10 games into the project twice in 2016 and 2019, and as of July 2024, the third phase has announced 9 games. On the path of pursuing the future, Chinese single player game developers have also encountered many challenges. Many industry insiders believe that the distribution of game licenses is gradually becoming more relaxed, but there is still room for growth in the review and issuance of imported game licenses. We should have a correct view of the gaming industry and be cautious of imposing a one size fits all approach on the entire gaming industry due to the negative impact of a single game. In addition, the development of small and medium-sized game companies is still relatively difficult, and support for these enterprises should be strengthened. Throughout the past, China's single player gaming industry has gone through a difficult climbing stage and is competing for the global gaming market, with unlimited potential and possibilities in the future. In the tide of the times, domestic single player games will sail with technological innovation and steer with cultural connotations, striving forward in the vast starry sky of the global gaming industry, becoming a business card for Chinese culture to go global, and writing a brilliant chapter of Chinese single player games. (New Society)