Bilibili World 2026: A Strategic Guide for Game Exhibitors

Held every July in Shanghai, Bilibili World is one of China’s leading subculture game shows, drawing Gen Z visitors around gaming, animation, and fandom culture.

China’s game marketing landscape is shifting. For many years, ChinaJoy symbolized the center of China’s game exhibition scene. Today, more attention is moving toward Bilibili World.

Launched in 2017, Bilibili World is still relatively young compared to longer-established events. Yet its growth has been rapid. The show drew around 250,000 visitors in 2024 and then jumped to 400,000 in 2025, showing how quickly it has grown within China’s Gen Z fandom and subculture audience.

Why Bilibili World Matters

Why Bilibili World Instead of ChinaJoy?

The biggest reason is the nature of the audience and the event itself.

1. Concentrated Gen Z subculture fandom

If ChinaJoy is a broad, mainstream game show, Bilibili World is much more centered on subculture communities. It has a stronger festival-like atmosphere built around fandom, which makes it a more suitable space for strengthening IP loyalty among deeply engaged users.

Since the pandemic, many Korean game companies have shifted toward collectible RPGs and subculture-oriented titles. As a result, they have increasingly preferred events where highly engaged users gather, rather than relying only on broader mass audiences. For these brands, Bilibili World offers access to core users with stronger loyalty and higher spending intent.

2. Platform-driven viral reach

One of Bilibili World’s biggest strengths is its built-in online spread.

Because the event sits within the wider Bilibili platform, one of China’s largest video communities, cosplay content, stage events, fan videos, and creator posts can continue generating views after the show ends. This allows offline activation to connect naturally with online traffic.

That makes Bilibili World especially valuable from a marketing perspective, since the event does not stop at the exhibition floor.

3. A strategy of focus

There was a period when uncertainty around China’s game license environment made large-scale exhibition participation less attractive for some brands. Even after licensing resumed, many companies continued to favor a more focused approach.

Instead of spending on broader expos, they chose to concentrate on younger users who are more likely to spend time with a game and respond actively to its content. That helps explain why titles such as KRAFTON’s upcoming releases or Pearl Abyss’s Crimson Desert have appeared at Bilibili World. The event offers direct contact with one of the youngest and most active gaming audiences in China.

For global game companies looking at China, Bilibili World has become a major event that is increasingly difficult to overlook.

Bilibili World by the Numbers

The impact of Bilibili World becomes even clearer through recent event figures. The speed of ticket sell-outs alone shows how strong the audience loyalty has become.

These figures suggest that Bilibili World works as more than an offline show. It also functions as a media platform that draws real-time reactions from online users across China.

Understanding the Audience

The main audience at Bilibili World is Gen Z, especially visitors in their late teens and early twenties. They account for a large share of the total audience.

For this group, games are not only a form of entertainment. They are also a cultural code through which identity, taste, and community are expressed. This is especially visible in audiences who are highly immersed in subculture IPs built around animation, characters, and worldbuilding.

At offline events, these visitors tend to place greater value on participation and ownership than on passive viewing alone.

Within this audience, visitors can be broadly divided into two groups: Hardcore Users and Casual Users. Each group responds to a different booth strategy and a different type of content structure.

Hardcore Users

Hardcore users are the core target for fandom building.

They actively search for game information even before the event begins. This group is more likely to join cosplay activities, participate in closed beta opportunities, and engage with official communities or fan-created content. Limited-edition merchandise and first-reveal content shown on site also tend to generate a strong response.

These users are often willing to wait longer and go through more complex participation steps if the reward feels meaningful.

Most importantly, they are more likely to continue spreading content after the event. For that reason, booth design for this audience should focus less on general brand awareness and more on deeper IP immersion.

Casual Users

Casual users are important for broadening booth traffic.

They are less tied to a single genre and more open to exploring a wider range of games and content. At events, they care more about fun and immediate participation than about deep familiarity with one IP.

This means they tend to respond better to intuitive interactions than to complicated experience structures. They also show higher participation in social sharing activities and short-form event missions.

When it comes to rewards, they usually prefer fast participation and immediate results rather than long wait times. For this audience, mini-games, random merchandise draws, and social sharing missions can play an important role in increasing booth traffic and building on-site buzz.

Hall and Booth Strategy

At Bilibili World, hall selection should be approached carefully. It is not only about booth size or visibility. It also involves hall character, neighboring brands, IP synergy, cosplay movement, and the structure of content spread within the venue.

For brands looking for deeper engagement with subculture fandom, Hall 2, Hall 3, and Hall 4 deserve close attention.

Bilibili World requires a different approach from more general game exhibitions. The following points should be considered together.

1. Hall position and audience density

Hall selection affects both traffic volume and audience fit. The goal is to choose a location where the surrounding visitors are more likely to match the game.

2. Adjacent IP synergy and cosplay flow

Nearby brands, neighboring IPs, and cosplay movement all influence the booth environment. These factors can shape how naturally visitors connect with the booth.

3. Content spread structure

At Bilibili World, booth planning is also linked to content spread. It is important to consider not only the booth itself, but also how the experience may continue through photos, videos, and fan sharing after the event.

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We have led global subculture game exhibitions including NIKKE and Stellar Blade, building fandom-centered event structures and on-site viral strategies. Our strength lies not only in booth operations, but also in designing fandom engagement and content spread as part of one integrated strategy.

For game companies preparing for Bilibili World, this can include hall selection strategy, audience analysis, experience content planning, creator and cosplay operations, on-site content production, and online amplification planning. As the event continues to grow, early decisions about where to exhibit, which audience to target, and what kind of experience to build can have a major impact on performance.

FAQ for Bilibili World Exhibitors