Exclusive Interview with Tuanjie Engine: The Future of Mini Games and Unity’s Gap

Recently, APKGAME interviewed Zhang Junbo, President of Unity China (Tuanjie Engine), to discuss the developer gap between Tuanjie Engine and Unity Global, the rise of mini games, the relationship between WebGL browser games and mini games, cross-platform and AAA titles, and where future industry growth may lie.

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Images sourced from Unity’s official website

The Gap Between Tuanjie Engine and Unity

APKGAME: In your speech, you mentioned that Tuanjie Engine has about 20,000 active developers in China, while Unity has over 4.5 million developers (including both gaming and non-gaming). How do you view this gap? And what will be the next focus for Tuanjie Engine?

Zhang Junbo: First, we need to clarify two dimensions. Unity China’s 4.5 million refers to cumulative registered users, while Tuanjie Engine currently has around 25,000 monthly active developers, and about 400,000 cumulative developers. In other words, Tuanjie accounts for close to 10%.

This gap mainly comes from different positioning. Tuanjie Engine is currently more focused on serving HarmonyOS and mini game developers, while many existing projects still use earlier Unity versions, with no strong reason to upgrade.

As for the gap with Unity Global, you can think of it this way: Tuanjie Engine is roughly on the level of Unity 2022, while Unity Global has already moved on to Unity 6. Our approach is to selectively bring over the features that are “indispensable” for Chinese developers, rather than porting everything. After all, Unity China’s engineering team is still much smaller than the global team.

We’ve grown from about 200 staff in 2022 to 400 now, and will continue to expand capacity to gradually catch up with the global release cycle.

APKGAME Comment: Tuanjie Engine’s strategy is “doing more with less.” Rather than competing head-on with Unity Global, it focuses on the core needs of the Chinese market. This is somewhat similar to HarmonyOS versus Android: it cannot cover everything, but can build competitiveness through localization.

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Mini Games: The Most Important Track

APKGAME: Mini games are one of the main use cases for Unity in China. According to recent reports, the mini game market surpassed RMB 23 billion in the first half of this year, and may reach nearly RMB 50 billion for the full year. How do you see Unity and Tuanjie Engine performing in this segment?

Zhang Junbo: Mini games are indeed very important to us. Three years ago, Unity games ran poorly on WeChat WebGL. Since 2021, we’ve worked closely with WeChat on deep technical optimizations.

Now, most Unity games on WeChat can achieve near-native performance. That’s the result of joint efforts. More importantly, the mini game market itself is evolving. Two or three years ago, monetization mainly relied on advertising (IAA). Now, in-app purchases (IAP) account for more than 70%. This means mini games are becoming increasingly “premiumized.” In the future, more high-quality mobile games will be ported to mini game platforms. Tuanjie Engine has been investing heavily in this track over the past three years, so it will have an advantage over other engines.

APKGAME Comment: The significance of mini games is that they give small and mid-sized teams new opportunities. On app stores, the charts are dominated by evergreen titles, leaving almost no room for new games. Mini games, with their low barriers and massive traffic, provide innovative teams with a new growth channel.

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WebGL Browser Games vs. Mini Games

APKGAME: We’ve noticed that Europe’s browser game market grew 4.7x between 2023 and 2025, with about half of that coming from mobile game ports. Do you think this trend is similar to the mini game phenomenon in China?

Zhang Junbo: Technically, they share the same roots—they’re both “click-and-play.” But the ecosystems differ:

• In China, mini games rely on super apps like WeChat and Douyin. These are essentially restricted browsers, with limited permissions, but they can achieve deep optimizations through platform collaboration.
• In Europe, WebGL browser games run directly in PC browsers, with fewer restrictions and stronger performance.

Looking forward, we plan to focus on WebGPU support on PC to enhance rendering capabilities, and continue optimizing Metal and Vulkan on mobile.

APKGAME Comment: The difference between mini games and browser games reflects the contrasting logics of Eastern and Western markets. In China, ecosystems are built around super apps, while overseas they depend on open browser environments. The technology is similar, but the business models are completely different.

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Cross-Platform and AAA Titles

APKGAME: In recent years, full cross-platform release has almost become standard for flagship titles. How does Unity China view this trend? And does Tuanjie Engine have any targeted plans for PC, console, or AAA games?

Zhang Junbo: Realistically, large cross-platform projects that are mainly PC-focused tend to choose Unreal Engine. Unity still has the advantage on mobile. If a project’s main revenue comes from mobile, Unity remains the first choice.

That said, we’re aware that major Chinese studios want to go cross-platform and build open worlds. That’s why Tuanjie Engine is investing heavily in PC high-end rendering features such as global illumination, particle systems, and animation systems. These updates are substantial, so we first provide them to partner studios for trial, then gradually open them up.

APKGAME Comment: Unity’s core positioning remains “mobile-first,” but it is now “catching up” on PC and console. Whether it can break through depends on whether Tuanjie Engine can find localized breakthroughs in open-world and AAA projects.

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Industry Outlook: Mini Games as the Next Growth Driver

APKGAME: Globally, the games industry is still focused on “cutting costs, killing projects.” How do you view fluctuations in developer activity? And where will future growth come from?

Zhang Junbo: The games industry is similar to film—success rates have always been low. Cutting projects is the norm, not a sign of decline. From the perspective of engine user activity, the overall number of developers hasn’t decreased.

I believe the biggest growth driver is mini games. They not only expand the gamer base, but also gradually cultivate paying habits. It’s highly likely that the mini game market will surpass RMB 100 billion in the future. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if, a few years from now, mini games outgrow both PC and mobile games.

APKGAME Comment: The mini game market is reshaping the industry. For developers, it’s a fairer stage. For Tuanjie Engine, it’s the most promising breakthrough opportunity.