中经记者 许心怡 吴可仲 上海报道 曾几何时，爆款小游戏就像流星，短时间内吸引大量玩家关注，但随后又迅速沉寂。 如今，越来越多的小游戏长期盘踞在榜单头部，已不再是"昙花一现"。据《中国经营报》记者统计，目 前的微信小游戏畅销榜TOP10中，有2款游戏的运营时间已经超过一年。 小游戏变得"长寿"的原因之一，是其采用了长期运营的App游戏模式，定期更新内容，提高玩家留存 率。对于游戏公司而言，在App和小游戏平台双端发行成为趋势。 "昙花一现"之困 2017年年底，微信小游戏《跳一跳》横空出世，不到一个月累计使用用户数量达到3.1亿，还在2018年 的微信公开课上成为微信创始人张小龙的开场演示项目。 根据第三方调研公司Quest Mobile的数据，2018年3月，《跳一跳》的累计活跃用户数量达到3.89亿，彼 时位列微信小程序用户规模榜单第一名，成为微信成功试水小游戏的项目之一。 多年过去，微信平台上的小游戏层出不穷，《跳一跳》逐渐被大部分玩家遗忘。 2021年1月，《合成大西瓜》出现，一周时间内玩家数量就接近6000万。这是一款玩法类似于《2048》 的游戏，玩家将相同水果合并成橘子、苹果、柠檬，最终合并成西 ...

Core Insights - The Chinese gaming market, despite being perceived as saturated, continues to evolve with the emergence of mini-games, which have shown significant growth in recent years [1][3] - The mini-game market generated revenue of 39.836 billion yuan in the past year, marking a year-on-year growth of 99.18%, with 500 million monthly active users, only 10% of whom overlap with the mobile gaming market [1][3] Group 1: Market Dynamics - The success of mini-games is attributed to their reliance on social platforms, ease of access, and strong social sharing attributes, alongside lower development costs compared to traditional mobile games [3][6] - Currently, 70% of listed gaming companies are investing in the mini-game sector, with notable products like "Endless Winter" and "Seeking the Great Thousand" leading the market [3][6] Group 2: Challenges for Small Teams - The entry of large companies into the mini-game market has increased operational costs, making it harder for small teams, which constitute 80% of the market, to compete [5][6] - As competition intensifies, the marginal returns on purely creative gameplay are diminishing, making it difficult for new mini-games to achieve significant user acquisition without substantial marketing budgets [8][9] Group 3: Opportunities for Small Teams - Despite challenges, small teams remain a vital part of the mini-game ecosystem and can leverage partnerships with larger platforms for support in product development and marketing [9][10] - Companies like ByteDance and Kuaishou are providing financial incentives and technical support to developers, helping to reduce marketing costs and enhance product competitiveness [10][12] Group 4: Evolution of Game Development - The mini-game sector is evolving similarly to the mobile game market, with a shift towards combining creative gameplay with established genres to meet user expectations [6][17] - Traditional mobile game content is increasingly influencing mini-game development, with many existing mobile games being adapted for mini-game platforms [17][19] Group 5: Future Directions - The unique social and high-sharing characteristics of mini-games may lead to distinct developmental paths compared to traditional mobile games, emphasizing the importance of innovation and adaptation to platform features [19][20] - Developers are encouraged to focus on gameplay creativity while relying on professional teams for technical optimization and commercialization, allowing them to carve out a niche in the growing mini-game market [20]