Advertising a Game on Bilibili: How Studios Reach Core Gamers

Bilibili is where Chinese players go to understand a game before they buy it. It rewards depth, honesty and time spent with a build, which makes it the platform most likely to turn curiosity into a purchase.

B站 (Bilibili) started as a home for anime, comics and games fans and grew into one of the largest video platforms in China. Its gaming community is deep, opinionated and used to long videos, which makes it closer in culture to a Western gaming channel than anything else in the country.

What makes Bilibili different

Three things set Bilibili apart for a studio:

• Longer, horizontal video. Full playthroughs, reviews, guides and first impressions that run from a few minutes to well over half an hour.
• 弹幕 (danmaku). Viewers post comments that scroll across the video itself at the moment they are watching. A video with an active danmaku layer is a live conversation about your game.
• A culture of support. Viewers like, give coins to and save the videos they value, and creators, known as UP主, are measured by that engagement as much as by raw views.

Discovery comes from a mix of subscriptions, rankings, the recommendation feed and search. That last part matters: a good Bilibili video about your game can keep being found through search long after it is published.

Formats that work for games

• First impressions and full playthroughs. A creator plays the game on camera and reacts honestly. This is the core format for most genres.
• Reviews and recommendations. Viewers use them to decide whether to buy, so an honest positive review carries real weight.
• Guides and 攻略 (walkthroughs). Strong for strategy, roguelikes, survival and any game with systems worth mastering. These keep earning views through search.
• Highlights and edits. Shorter cuts of the best moments, which work as a bridge between Bilibili and short form platforms like Douyin.

Which games suit Bilibili best

Bilibili is the right home for games that need to be understood before they are wanted: strategy, simulation, RPGs, roguelikes, survival and anything with depth to explore. A single thoughtful video from a creator whose audience trusts them can do more for a niche PC or console title than a much larger number of short form views.

If your game's appeal is mostly visual and immediate, Bilibili still helps with credibility, but Douyin will usually give you more reach per dollar. Our platform comparison goes through the trade offs side by side.

Working with Bilibili creators

Bilibili audiences notice when a video reads as an advert, and they say so in the comments and the danmaku. A few habits help:

• Give creators time with a build. Long form content needs real play time. Rushed videos show.
• Do not script opinions. Tell creators what must be shown and what must not be spoiled, then let them say what they think. Our guide to writing campaign guidelines explains how to keep rules separate from suggestions.
• Disclose sponsorship clearly. Viewers expect it, and hiding it costs more trust than it saves.
• Localise properly. Machine translated store pages and in game text are noticed immediately by exactly the audience most likely to talk about your game.

Paying for results on Bilibili

Longer videos take more work to make, so a view on Bilibili is a different product from a view on a short clip and usually prices differently. The cleanest way to compare is effective cost per thousand views within the platform, as covered in our CPM benchmarks guide.

On niwo a single campaign runs across Bilibili, Douyin and Rednote. You set the rate per thousand verified views and a cap per creator, Bilibili creators choose the campaign, and you pay for the views their videos actually deliver.