The Impact of Game Live Streaming on In-Game Purchases of Chinese Young Game Users

Abstract

The gaming industry in China boasts a massive user base, with 654 million game users and 266 million game live stream viewers. This paper focuses on young gamers in China, exploring the impact of game live streaming on their spending behavior. Specifically, it examines in-app purchases in mobile games. Results show that watching game live streams influences both the amount and frequency of in-game spending by gamers. Platforms like TikTok and Bilibili surpassed dedicated game streaming platforms in popularity, with TikTok leading in user base. The results of this study indicate that live stream viewing is a critical factor in promoting user spending behavior in game marketing and content creation. Notably, in popular genres such as MOBA and shooting games, live streaming strongly encourages spending behavior. This suggests that utilizing live streaming will become increasingly important in developing marketing strategies and monetization models within the gaming industry.