China's science fiction industry generated a total of 108.96 billion yuan (about 15 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024 revenue, which largely remains flat compared with that in the previous year, according to a report released by China Science Fiction Research Center on Friday.
Notable originality was evident in the literature, derivative products and themed tourism sectors, the center announced at the China Science Fiction Convention 2025.
The report covered five core sectors of the sci-fi industry -- literature, films and TV shows, video games, derivative products and themed tourism -- highlighting the annual development trends and future trajectories of China's sci-fi industry.
Science fiction is a lens through which humanity views the future and the foundation for the development of the sci-fi industry, according to renowned Chinese science fiction author Liu Cixin.
"The science fiction industry is of a very large scale, covering different fields, including films, literature and art. Only when we have high-quality original content that could generate impactful intellectual properties (IP), which is the origin of the industry, can we further develop the downstream sci-fi industry. Science fiction works in recent years increasingly focus on how technology could reshape our life," Liu said.
Liu also shared his thoughts on AI advancements, suggesting that tools like "Deepseek" might eventually reshape the sci-fi industry.
He also stressed that authors should find innovative approaches that truly demonstrate the value of human authors and science fiction literature.
"[AI tools] can not replace human authors at the moment, but it must be viewed in a development view. AI cannot write novels in upcoming two to three years, but after two more years, 10 or 20 years, it may be able to replace human science fiction authors in theory," he said.
The sci-fi reading sector of the science fiction industry maintained a growth trend from 2017 to 2024. In 2024, the total revenue of this sector reached 3.51 billion yuan (484 million U.S. dollars), representing a year-on-year increase of 10.7 percent.
The industry's sci-fi video games sector earned a total revenue of 71.81 billion yuan (9.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024, up 10.2 percent year on year, with a significant improvement in production quality, according to the report.
"Sci-fi video games, as a new culture carrier, not only serve as a good entertainment means, but also carry forward our history and culture, and spread science knowledge. Through a video game, we can build a bridge for players or users," said Chen Chao, a sci-fi video game creator.
Chinese sci-fi industry's total revenue hits 108.96 billion yuan in 2024
