Within five days of launch, Road to Empress II had sold more than 1 million copies across the globe. Much of that momentum, however, came from fans who may never play it themselves.

Since early June, the live-action interactive game has spread across Chinese social media through livestreams, where audiences watch streamers make life-or-death palace choices, argue over romance routes in on-screen comments, and laugh at the protagonist’s increasingly absurd deaths.

The heroine can be betrayed by allies, trapped by rivals, condemned for backing the wrong faction, or forced into exile or execution. In one ending, she is poisoned and laughs herself to death.

The game draws on the life of Wu Zetian, China’s first and only female emperor (690–705), and follows last year’s breakout installment about surviving the imperial court. The sequel shifts to the struggle for power, where player choices can save an ally, doom a rival, or plunge the country into war.

Zong, a 25-year-old postgraduate student in Shanghai, discovered Road to Empress II through livestreams and followed one streamer’s playthrough for about three hours over four days.

“I don’t have the patience to play by myself,” she told Sixth Tone, asking to be identified only by her surname. “Watching others play while reading the on-screen comments is more fun than playing alone.”

Released June 9 and priced from 49 to 88 yuan ($7 to $13), depending on whether users were new or returning players, Road to Empress II pushed total franchise sales past 3 million copies. The first game, released last September, sold 1 million copies in 12 days and stood out in a live-action interactive genre long dominated by male-oriented romance titles.

The sequel runs more than 12 hours, includes nearly 100 decision points, and adds combat interactions, giving players — and viewers — more routes to debate, revisit, and second-guess.

New characters, from powerful ministers to conflicted traitors, have also expanded the moral stakes, such as whether to forgive betrayal, sacrifice an ally, or pursue power at almost any cost.

To Zong, that makes a traditional video game seem like a drama watched with a crowd. “Interactive FMV (full-motion video) games are like a mini TV drama or movie, but they give audiences much more participation,” she said.

That appeal, she added, is especially strong at a time when many viewers lack the patience to finish long television series. “The multiple endings are also much more interesting than the single ending of a TV drama.”

One of her favorite streamers turned the game into a running commentary, analyzing each decision, predicting possible outcomes, joking through the plot, and sometimes returning to absurd choices simply to satisfy viewers’ curiosity.

“Sometimes he notices perspectives I would never think of,” Zong said. “He’s funny, but he also helps you understand the story differently.”

Split screen

Fu Yiqiang, a 29-year-old livestreamer who once taught esports commentary at a university, streamed the first Road to Empress out of curiosity, when only a small circle of gamers were covering it.

By the time the sequel arrived, his followers were urging him to play. His streams drew about 140,000 views, unusually high for his livestreaming channel.

Fu said the game’s interactive choices give livestream audiences a role in the story. “The more viewers participate, the better the engagement metrics, and the more likely the platform is to recommend the stream,” he said. “Audiences also become more invested because they want to influence how the story unfolds.”

As of June 26, Road to Empress II replays on video streaming platform Bilibili had drawn more than 20 million views, with some streams attracting more than 100,000 concurrent viewers. Two weeks after release, replay streams were still drawing more than 8,000 concurrent viewers.

Following the success of the first installment, the game’s maker, New One Studio, made livestreaming central to the sequel’s rollout, backing Road to Empress II with early promotion across multiple platforms.

Post-release, the studio invited veteran actress Liu Xiaoqing to play it on Xiaohongshu, the lifestyle app also known as RedNote. Liu, who played Wu Zetian in a 1995 television series, drew tens of millions of views with her blunt reactions to the game’s palace choices, helping push the title into trending discussions.

The studio also worked with tech giant Tencent on distribution and invited well-known esports players to stream the game. Watching competitive gamers, more used to reflexes and tactics, try to survive romance routes, court etiquette, and imperial politics became part of the entertainment.

A New One Studio producer told domestic media that its earlier interactive FMV game, The Invisible Guardian, was aimed mainly at hardcore players. Road to Empress II, by contrast, was designed from the start as a mainstream interactive film experience.

While streaming Road to Empress II, Fu used his commentary experience to control the pace, pausing when viewers might drift and adding interpretation between major scenes.

He also made himself part of the drama, adding flourishes such as cosplaying as one of the empress’s palace attendants, who is also an assassin. During one livestream, he broke down in tears when Emperor Li Zhi, Wu Zetian’s husband, died of illness.

“I saw comments saying, ‘I wasn’t planning to cry, but then I saw the streamer crying and started crying too,’” Fu said. “It feels like everyone is watching a TV drama together.”

“This is the most polished FMV game I’ve ever played,” Fu said. The actors’ performances and cinematic visuals, he said, made it easier to feel as if he had lived through the protagonist’s life alongside her.

The livestreams fed a wider cycle of clips, memes, and shareable results. Lines from the game circulated across social media, while a personalized in-game “Emperor Personality Report,” generated from players’ choices, encouraged users to post their own outcomes online.

Liu, a 19-year-old student who had just completed China’s grueling national college entrance examination, watched Road to Empress II streams even after completing the game herself six times.

“After I finished it, none of my friends were playing it, so I got bored,” she said. “I wanted to watch livestreams to see how other people played.”

Digital marketing platform DataEye has estimated that China’s FMV game market could reach 1.8 billion yuan in 2026. But the genre’s long-term business model remains uncertain, especially for titles that gain attention through livestreams.

Live-action interactive games are essentially selling “an exclusive story experience,” DataEye said. Livestream spoilers, account sharing, and low-cost access all offer cheaper substitutes, leaving studios to balance open-platform publicity against the need to protect the product itself.

Fu acknowledged that livestreams may satisfy some viewers’ curiosity without turning them into buyers. But he said the same streams can also send others back to the game, looking for routes, endings, and choices they have not seen.

“With so many streamers covering the game, I think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks,” Fu said. “More people are learning about it, and to some extent that helps boost sales.”

Editor: Apurva.

(Header image: A promotional image for “Road to Empress II.” From the game’s website)