Article

Game Approval in China: NPPA Rules for Foreign Publishers

October 5, 2026

Your mainland China launch checklist — entity, ICP filing, CDN, APP filing, WeChat Pay — is complete for most products. It is not complete for a game. Games carry a separate game-approval layer run by a dedicated regulator: the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA, 国家新闻出版署). That layer has its own public result channels, its own statutory clock, and a pre-approval document that gates your Mini Program filing at the front door.

This article maps what NPPA publishes about game version approval — the domestic and imported channels, the batch structure, the procedure for imported titles — and states where the public record goes silent. It does not repeat the generic ICP stack. For that baseline, see our ICP filing vs ICP license comparison.

What's different for games

A standard mainland launch involves six compliance instruments: ICP filing, ICP license, CDN license, APP filing, PSB filing, and WeChat Pay merchant account. Game version approval appears nowhere in that list. It is a seventh instrument — one that sits on top of the other six, not beside them.

The regulator is different, too. ICP filing and APP filing run through MIIT (the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) and provincial communications administrations. Game version approval runs through NPPA and provincial press departments. The regulator-lanes breakdown on this site maps MIIT, CAC, and their neighbors. NPPA is the additional lane a game must clear.

The legal basis is the 《网络出版服务管理规定》 (Online Publishing Service Management Provisions), issued in 2016. Article 7 states that providing online publishing services requires approval and a 《网络出版服务许可证》 (Online Publishing Service License). Article 2 explicitly includes games (游戏) within the scope of online publications. Article 27 requires that online games apply through the provincial press department to NPPA before online publication. Article 32 routes games authorized by overseas copyright holders through the same Article 27 procedure.

The practical consequence: before your game goes live on any mainland server or app store, it needs a version approval (版号) from NPPA. The ICP filing covers your backend and domain. The version approval covers the game content itself.

The NPPA approval channels: results only

NPPA maintains five public result channels for game approvals on its website. Each is a dedicated listing page under the 结果公布 (results publication) section of NPPA's service portal:

1. Domestic online games (国产网络游戏审批信息) — month-titled batch lists.
2. Imported online games (进口网络游戏审批信息) — year-titled cumulative lists.
3. Imported electronic games (进口电子游戏审批信息) — a separate channel for non-online electronic game publications.
4. Approval changes (游戏审批变更信息) — year-titled lists recording modifications to previously approved titles.
5. Approval revocations (游戏审批撤销信息) — year-titled lists recording revoked approvals.

These are result publications. They list what was approved, changed, or revoked. None of them documents the procedure that led to each result. The procedure pages exist separately under NPPA's 许可事项 (license matters) section — and that distinction matters when you are trying to understand how to apply.

Domestic game approvals arrive as month-titled batches

Domestic online-game approvals publish as batches titled by month — for example, "2026年9月份国产网络游戏审批信息" (September 2026 domestic online game approval information), posted on 2026-09-30. The batch titles show a monthly cadence: consecutive month-titled batches appear on the listing page from January through September 2026.

Each batch is a table with eight columns: sequential number (序号), name (名称), application category (申报类别), publishing unit (出版单位), operating unit (运营单位), approval number (批复文号), ISBN (出版物号), and approval date (批准时间). The September 2026 batch contains 206 enumerated entries. Approval numbers in that batch run consecutively from 国新出审〔2026〕2218号 to 国新出审〔2026〕2423号.

One structural detail: the application-category column (申报类别) is not part of the published record — do not rely on the values shown in the batch tables.

A specimen entry from the September 2026 batch: entry 1, titled 暗夜勇士, published by 杭州润趣科技有限公司, operated by 杭州玛伊克软件技术有限公司, approval number 国新出审〔2026〕2218号, ISBN 978-7-498-17571-7, approved 2026-09-29.

Imported games: channels and procedure

Imported online-game approvals publish through a dedicated channel — the 进口网络游戏审批信息 listing — but as year-titled cumulative lists (e.g., "2026年进口网络游戏审批信息"), not monthly batches. This is structurally different from the domestic channel. The imported channel has published results; the procedure that produces those results lives on a separate set of pages under NPPA's license-matter listings.

The imported online-game approval procedure (出版境外著作权人授权的互联网游戏作品审批) is documented on NPPA's own site. The key elements:

Two-tier routing. The applicant submits materials to the provincial press department (省级出版管理部门) in the publisher's jurisdiction. The provincial department reviews and forwards to NPPA for final approval. This is the same provincial-then-national structure used for domestic games.

Statutory limit. The published processing limit is 80 working days from the date the application is accepted (自受理申请之日起80个工作日). This is the statutory cap — not an observed or typical timeline. Actual processing time depends on NPPA's workload, completeness of materials, and whether the application triggers content-revision requests.

License conditions. Three conditions gate who can apply:

1. The publisher must be a licensed online publishing service unit (网络出版服务单位) with online-game scope in its license.
2. The game must already be registered at the National Copyright Administration (国家版权局) — specifically, the copyright contract must be recorded (著作权合同登记).
3. The game operator must hold an ICP license (ICP证, formally 《电信与信息服务业务经营许可证》).

Foreign-investment constraint. The 2024 FDI negative list (NDRC + MOFCOM Order No. 23, effective 2024-11-01) prohibits foreign investment in online publishing services (网络出版服务) under item 13. A foreign publisher cannot hold the online publishing license directly. The practical result: a foreign publisher needs a licensed domestic publishing partner to serve as the applicant.

Required materials. The published material list includes ten items: a provincial request document (one per game), an application form for publishing overseas-copyright-holder-authorized internet games, the NCAC copyright-contract registration approval, the operator's business license and ICP license copies, at least 10 screenshots (including one title screen), anti-addiction system documentation, a full Chinese-language script with blocked-word list, review and test accounts, review media (three copies of installation packages), and electronic documentation plus a demo video of at least 10 minutes.

A nuance for foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) in China: a FIE (including Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan-invested entities) that independently develops a game that is NOT authorized from an overseas IP may submit copyright certification materials and an authorized-contract copy stamped by the copyright holder instead of the NCAC registration. If the game IS an overseas-IP authorization, the NCAC copyright-contract registration remains required.

Imported electronic games: a separate license matter

NPPA maintains a separate approval channel for imported electronic game publications (出版境外著作权人授权的电子游戏出版物审批). "Online games" (网络游戏) and "electronic games" (电子游戏出版物) are distinct license categories with distinct application forms and distinct regulatory bases.

The electronic-game channel adds a second regulatory foundation: the 《音像制品管理条例》 (Audio-Visual Products Management Regulations). The publisher must be an electronic-publication publishing unit (电子出版物出版单位). A distributor that is not itself a publishing unit needs a separate distribution license (发行许可证).

For most game publishers entering China with live-ops or mobile titles, the online-game channel is the relevant one. The electronic-game channel applies to boxed or disc-based publications rather than live-ops or mobile titles.

Domestic games: who qualifies

Domestic online-game approval (出版国产网络游戏作品审批) follows the same two-tier provincial-then-NPPA routing and the same 80-working-day statutory limit. The defining condition: the copyright holder must be a Chinese citizen or a domestic-capital enterprise (中国公民或内资企业).

Domestic applications use different forms depending on platform: a PC/web/download application form for non-mobile titles, and a separate mobile-game application form. A batching rule allows 10 or more mini-games on a single platform to be filed in one document, in principle no more than 20 per submission.

The baseline underneath: entity, filing, vehicle

Game version approval is the layer on top. The layer underneath — the one every mainland launch needs regardless of product type — is the standard ICP and entity stack. A mainland-hosted backend triggers the ICP filing (typically 2–4 weeks, requires a mainland company such as a WFOE or a qualifying partner). A native game app whose backend domains resolve to mainland servers adds the APP filing under the same MIIT pipeline — a separate registration with its own -A suffix. See the APP filing glossary entry for what that covers and how the distribution bar blocks unfiled apps.

The vehicle you choose — Mini Program, native app, H5 — determines which filing variant applies. It does not change whether the NPPA version approval is needed. A game distributed as a Mini Program still needs the version approval. A game distributed as a native app still needs both the version approval and the APP filing. The filing baseline and the approval layer are independent instruments from independent regulators.

Games in the pre-approval table

If your game launches as a WeChat Mini Program, the NPPA layer becomes a filing gate. The Mini Program pre-approval categories table — documented in our WeChat Mini Program ICP filing article — lists "Publishing, including games" in row 1, with the responsible regulator named as NPPA plus provincial press departments and the required document as an Online Publishing Service License.

Without that document, the Mini Program filing is rejected. This is not a post-filing audit risk — it is a front-door gate. Check the pre-approval table before filing, not after a rejection.

Approval changes and revocations: what the public record shows

The approval-change channel (游戏审批变更信息) publishes year-titled lists — one per year from 2014 through 2026. Each entry records the game name, category, publishing unit, operating unit, a free-text change note citing the original approval number, and the change-approval date. The 2026 list contains 87 entries. Specimen changes: a game that added a mobile platform ("原申报版本增加移动端") citing its original 2025 approval number, and a game that changed its name ("原名《无尽的拉格朗日》") citing its original 2019 approval number.

The approval-revocation channel (游戏审批撤销信息) has published exactly two year lists: 2020 and 2021. Nothing has been published since 2021. The 2021 list contains a single entry recording only a revocation date — no grounds, no process description, no context.

Both channels are pure result lists. Neither publishes trigger conditions, application procedures, or decision criteria. The public record shows what changed or was revoked, not why or how to initiate either process.

What this page deliberately does not cover

• Pass rates or approval probability. NPPA publishes results, not acceptance statistics. No pass-rate claim appears on this site.
• Cadence guarantees. The domestic batch titles show monthly publication through September 2026. This article does not project future cadence or guarantee the monthly cadence continues.
• Imported-game timeline beyond the statutory cap. The 80-working-day limit is the published statutory figure. No observed-timeline claim appears here.
• JV structures, partner names, or pricing. The foreign-investment constraint requires a licensed domestic publishing partner. The site does not recommend structures, name partners, or quote fees.
• Monetization and top-up category eligibility. WeChat Pay and Alipay payment-product rules for game top-ups fall outside the scope of this article.
• The generic ICP filing flow. The entity, filing, and vehicle baseline is shared ground with the rest of this site. This article cross-links it; it does not re-walk it.

Frequently asked questions

Next steps

Game version approval is the compliance layer that sits outside the standard six-instrument launch checklist. It runs on a different regulator's clock and gates your Mini Program filing at the front door.

Our ICP compliance service covers the full mainland launch stack — entity setup, filing, license applications, and coordination with the NPPA approval layer. For the WeChat-specific vehicle decision and Mini Program filing coordination, see our WeChat ecosystem service.

Questions about how the NPPA approval layer fits your game's China roadmap? Email hello@chinagateway.pro.