(Yicai) June 25 -- Chinese regulators have given the green light to 158 new game titles in June, including 147 domestic and 11 foreign video games, the most for any month in recent years.

CrossFire, a first-person shooter game developed by South Korea's Smilegate Entertainment and published by Tencent Holdings in China, was included in the list of approved foreign games released by the National Press and Publication Administration yesterday.

Similarly, Wildgate, a player-versus-player multiplayer shooter title from the US’ Moonshot Games with NetEase as its global publisher, also made the cut.

The NPPA has now licensed 757 Chinese and 55 foreign games so far this year, with the number of increasing almost every month. In addition, the approval process for imported games has picked up speed this year, shifting to once a month from every two months last year.

After a suspension of new game licenses from July 2021 through March 2022, the NPPA started issuing them again in April 2022, since when approvals have climbed steadily.

China's gaming market grew about 10 percent to almost CNY28.1 billion (USD3.9 billion) last month from a year earlier, according to the May 2025 China Game Industry Monthly Report released by research center Gamma Datao on June 20. Overseas sales of Chinese games hit USD1.6 billion, a 6.9 percent increase.

In the first quarter of this year, the Chinese market reached CNY85.7 billion (USD11.9 billion), while overseas sales of Chinese titles topped USD4.8 billion, both up nearly 18 percent from a year ago.

Editor: Martin Kadiev