Since its release on September 9, the interactive game Road to Empress has remained in the spotlight for more than a month, showing strong performance in both sales and quality. On September 22, the production team announced that total sales across all platforms had exceeded one million copies. Priced at RMB 39 (USD 5.5), the buy-to-play title has generated nearly RMB 40 million (USD 5.6 million) in revenue.
The game features real actors, allowing players to influence the plot and character outcomes through in-game choices. Road to Empress draws inspiration from the life of Wu Zetian, the only female emperor in Chinese history, and is divided into two parts. The first and currently available part follows the protagonist’s struggle to survive treacherous palace intrigues.
Earlier, Road to Empress topped charts in Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore, and ranked first on both TapTap’s new game list and WeChat’s popular mobile games chart. It has received “very positive” feedback on Steam with more than 5,000 reviews and holds a score of 7.7 on TapTap.
Before Road to Empress, the last major Chinese live-action interactive game to reach similar prominence was Love is All Around in 2023, which topped Steam’s China bestseller list. The title took the market by surprise, sparking analysis over its success. Some credited its appeal to its blend of short-drama storytelling and gaming tropes, while others said it filled a gap in male-oriented live-action interactive games. Following its success, a wave of similar titles emerged, most featuring male-centered narratives and harem-style storylines.
In June this year, Revenge on Gold Diggers became another hit after its Steam release, though it later faced controversy over its storyline. Since then, few others have made a comparable impact, not even the sequel to Love is All Around. That changed with Road to Empress, which offers a fresh path for China’s homegrown interactive film titles.
Playing to its strengths
Although interactive film games have become a buzzword in China over the past two years, the genre itself is not new. In 2010, France’s Quantic Dream set the modern standard for interactive movies with Heavy Rain. The studio later released Detroit: Become Human in 2018, a landmark title exploring the ethics of human-android coexistence—an idea that continues to resonate today, particularly amid growing debate over artificial intelligence.
In China, however, high-quality examples have been rare. New One Studio helped change that narrative in 2019 with The Invisible Guardian, a spy thriller title that popularized the genre among Chinese players. During its production, funding was tight, resulting in visuals closer to a slideshow than full-motion video. Still, its compelling storyline won players over and drove the game to the top of Steam’s sales chart.
Building on that foundation, Road to Empress combines narrative sophistication with a significant leap in production value. The story flows smoothly and logically. In one key chapter, concubine Yin Xianfei earns the emperor’s favor for a dance and is rewarded with an ornate pair of shoes. The moment appears trivial until the shoes later become vital to protagonist Wu Yuanzhao’s survival. Upon discovering Yin’s plan to assassinate the emperor to avenge her late husband, Wu must interpret her emotions to buy time to escape. The turning point lies in the shoes themselves, an indulgent gift from her enemy that reveals her lingering attachment to power. Players who overlook this clue face another tragic ending.
In an interview with Chinese outlet Youxiputao, producer Demi said the script took about a year to complete. It was written by a team of five writers and a director, resulting in a 300,000-word script spanning more than 1,200 minutes of footage. Director Zhi Zhu, known for visually rich period dramas with high Douban ratings, likely brought his cinematic touch to the project’s presentation.
One standout scene features the monk Bianji carrying Princess Gaoyang, dressed in a red gown, through fire and smoke. It evokes the familiar hero-rescues-damsel trope but is executed with tension and visual precision to hold viewers’ attention. The game’s costumes, makeup, and set design also seemingly rival those of high-end television dramas.
Still, some players say Road to Empress offers limited freedom of choice. Numerous branching paths reportedly end in the protagonist’s death, leading to complaints that most alternate endings result in failure. This restriction may stem from the genre’s high production costs. Unlike traditional television shoots, interactive film games require multiple versions of each scene with corresponding changes in performance and styling, significantly raising expenses. Industry insiders told 36Kr that Road to Empress likely cost tens of millions of RMB to produce.
A nuanced strategy
Beyond its creative strengths, Road to Empress also reflects a mature approach to marketing and commercialization. Promotional campaigns have appeared across Xiaohongshu, Weibo, WeChat, Tencent Video, and Bilibili. Users who engage with related content often encounter targeted ads featuring sped-up walkthroughs of the game.
On its official Weibo account, the marketing strategy mirrors that of mainstream TV dramas: lead actors interact directly with fans, while brand partnerships roll out steadily. Since launch, Road to Empress has collaborated with Luoyang Culture and Tourism Investment Group and Lenovo, among others.
Tencent’s ecosystem has played a dominant role in the game’s distribution. New One Studio is supported by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group, and multiple TiMi titles—including Honor of Kings, Delta Force, Yuan Meng Star, and Craz3 Match—have held cross-promotional events with Road to Empress. Meanwhile, Tencent Video continues to feature the game prominently on its homepage carousel.
This multi-platform push helped Road to Empress trend repeatedly on social media, reportedly generating more than 1.2 billion mentions across platforms. Strong content combined with an aggressive marketing strategy has solidified its success. Yet the game also highlights the high cost of quality production and sustained promotion, factors that make comparable success stories difficult to reproduce.
Producer Demi noted that Road to Empress has yet to turn a profit, and its sales have not changed broader market perceptions of the genre’s revenue potential. Still, the title carries substantial commercial expectations. According to Shanghai Observer, four of the top 15 Chinese titles on Steam in the first half of this year were interactive film games. With the breakout success of Road to Empress, the category’s future looks increasingly promising.
KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This article was written by Lan Jie for 36Kr.