A game about sheep is going viral in China even as gaming regulation remains tight

At a time when NetEase have waited months for approval to launch games, a new game that went viral in China hit peoples screens with surprising speed.

The new game, called Sheep a Sheep, is a mini- program in ByteDance's and Tencent's messaging apps. The game can be played inside the apps.

Rich Bishop is the CEO of AppInChina, which publishes international software in China.

He said that this is likely to change over the next few months.

The coding tools used to build the games are similar to the ones used for websites.

CNBC did not get a response from ByteDance.

Sheep a Sheep just went viral these past few days. Very fresh to everyone, especially regulators.

Beijing Jianyou Technology was founded in January of 2020.

The company registered the game's software in July. In early September, the sheep game was launched by Jianyou, according to posts on its official Weibo account.

NetEase had its first game approval in less than a year after the company registered the software.

Between July 2021. and April 2022, the National Administration of Press and Publication stopped approving new games. The only games that came up when you searched for sheep were from the year 2018?

The administration did not reply to the request for comment.

It is not clear what the rules are for games that are supported by advertisements.

A surge in social media attention around a long weekend in mid-September helped attract players who were eager to win the game as soon as possible, even if they had to watch a lot of ads.

The impact isn’t that clear yet ... People might lose interest in it just as fast as they were attracted.

The game is completely free to play. You need to watch a commercial for 30 seconds.

She said that it was very cost-effective for a developer. It is a good thing that the popularity can last for a long time. They got a lot out of this.

The mini- program games are not new.

A sense of challenge is part of Sheep a Sheep's appeal.

In order to play the game, players must eliminate tiles of the same category. People who succeed in winning a cartoon sheep will join a virtual herd based on the player's region, which will boost the ranking of the player's province.

Many people have never experienced a game like that before. They heard people talk on social media about how difficult it is, generating a lot of curiosity. It is so unique because of that.

Over a single weekend in September, the number of this reporter's contacts who'd tried the mini- program game tripled. Two people on a bench in a Beijing subway were playing a game.

Sheep a sheep just went crazy. Brian Tycangco, analyst at Stansberry Research, said in an email that it was very fresh to everyone.

The impact isn't clear yet. People may lose interest in it just as quickly as they were attracted.