This article examines the internationalisation of Chinese esports from a platform-ecosystem perspective. It argues that overseas expansion cannot be explained adequately as the export of a finished game product, because competitive gaming depends on infrastructures, recurrent tournaments, livestreaming, professional organisations and participatory communities that must be reproduced across markets. The analysis places Yupei Zhao and Zhongxuan Lin’s concept of the Chinese esports “umbrella platform” at its centre. Their study of Tencent shows how state regulation, corporate capital, technical infrastructure, leagues, clubs and media platforms become mutually embedded, creating both coordination and power asymmetries. Building on this argument, the article proposes a Platform–Tournament–Community (PTC) model as an outward-facing extension of the umbrella platform. Platforms establish access and governance; tournaments generate repeated transnational attention; communities interpret, circulate and localise competitive content. A qualitative synthesis of ten peer-reviewed studies distinguishes structural capacity from cultural outcome. The article concludes that Chinese esports internationalisation is better understood as ecosystem-building than one-way cultural export, and that international visibility should not automatically be treated as evidence of cultural influence.

Pintang Huang. Beyond Game Export: Platform Ecosystems and the Internationalisation of Chinese Esports. Academic Journal of Business & Management (2026), Vol. 8, Issue 8: 139-147. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJBM.2026.080817.

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