A new report highlights the 50 most influential cultural intellectual properties (IPs) in China, with "Joy of Life" and "Black Myth: Wukong" topping the list.

Posters for "Joy of Life 2" and "Black Myth: Wukong." [Images courtesy of Yuewen and Game Science]

The 2024 China Cultural Industry IP Influence Report was officially released on Dec. 29 during the Shenzhen Forum of Renmin University of China 2024 — Forum For Cultural Policy, in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. The report was compiled by the Creative Industry and Technology Research Institute of Renmin University of China.

It reveals the top 50 IPs of 2024 in the cultural industry, which are works created or adapted between January 2023 and September 2024, spanning various formats such as novels, anime, TV series, films, games, and offline derivatives.

The number one IP on the list, "Joy of Life," was originally published on Qidian, a platform under Yuewen, and added to the British Library's collection in November. The novel, now translated into multiple languages including English, Korean and Indonesian, also boasts a successful live-action TV adaptation. The first two seasons are highly rated on MyDramaList, and the second season holds the record as the highest-rated Chinese drama on Disney+. It is being translated into 14 languages for international release.

"Black Myth: Wukong," China's first AAA game title, claimed the second spot with over 23 million copies sold on Steam, generating over $1 billion in revenue and becoming a worldwide cultural phenomenon. It has already won several prestigious awards, including Game of the Year and Best Visual Design at the 2024 Golden Joystick Awards, and Best Action Game at The Game Awards 2024.

The remaining IPs in the top five spots are literature franchises: "Soul Land," "The Three-Body Problem" and "Battle Through the Heavens."

According to the report, more than 40% of the top 50 IPs come from online literature, cementing it as the largest source of cultural IP in China. Over recent years, China has built a highly advanced IP industry chain, with online works being adapted into print, audiobooks, anime, TV series, films, games and other derivatives. This expansion has significantly boosted the commercial value of these IPs, fueling the growth of China's IP licensing market.

The 2024 Global Licensing Market Report, released by Licensing International in July, showed that China's retail sales of licensed products and services reached $13.77 billion in 2023. This marks the first time China has surpassed Germany, making it the world's fourth-largest licensing market, behind only the United States, United Kingdom and Japan.

This trend is also reflected in the 2024 China Brand Licensing Industry Development White Paper, published by the China National Light Industry Council and the China Toy & Juvenile Products Association. According to the report, by 2023, the proportion of domestically licensed IPs in China had surpassed that of Europe and the U.S. for three consecutive years, making China the largest source of IPs for licensing.

As China's IP licensing market matures, the cultural industry is increasingly intersecting with sectors like technology, tourism and consumer goods. For example, the concept of "gaming-inspired travel" has emerged as a new trend in tourism. Several real-world locations featured in "Black Myth: Wukong" have become popular tourist attractions, with related videos on streaming platform Bilibili amassing over 10 billion views.