If there's a crowd of people crammed into the lobby of your favorite shopping mall, you may just be observing one of the latest crazes among young Chinese people－the mobile game Knives Out, also known as the chiji (chicken-eating) game.

The game, launched by China's leading mobile-game developer NetEase last November, now boasts 200 million registered users. Meanwhile, a national esports tournament was held across cities in China, providing an offline gathering for Knives Out fans.

From December 2017 to early February, NetEase arranged more than 400 offline matches in 18 cities nationwide, getting a total of 19,000 gamers involved, according to the latest data from the company. Prizes were set to make the tournament more fun. For each single match, the top prize was 2,000 yuan ($316).

Meanwhile, the campus tournament covered more than 500 universities and colleges.

The offline tournament has aroused gamers' enthusiasm, and stimulated Knives Out's online market, and the company is planning to invest more to combine its gaming sector with esports.

"We plan to invest at least 1 billion yuan to build a pan-entertainment esports ecology," said Wang Yi, vice-president of NetEase. "The game we offer aims at getting everybody participating. This year, we will arrange basic events across 100 cities and 1,000 universities nationwide."

The offline tournament of Knives Out sets a zero threshold, with every gamer allowed to participate.

"For previous esports games, we ordinary gamers were only audience members. Now, my friends and I can enjoy ourselves in the offline tournament," said Lin Qian, a fan of Knives Out. "We may also make some new friends in the game. We had a lot of fun."

Market insiders from iiMedia Research Group, a consulting agency in the mobile internet industry, said the trend in the gaming market is combining online gaming with offline gaming. Creating users' offline interactions is beneficial to arouse their enthusiasm and to enhance the level of engagement and stickiness, bringing new growth points for the gaming market.

The offline scenarios offer gamers better user experiences, and can expand the channels to attract users, market insiders said.

Besides Knives Out, other online games are also exploring their offline scenarios. During the past Spring Festival, King of Glory, another popular mobile game developed by Tencent Holdings Ltd, joined hands with online travel agency Ctrip, offering a free lounge service at railway stations to the veteran players.

It also cooperated with Meituan Waimai, the country's leading online food delivery company, to offer gamers special discounts when they order food on the platform.

"Integrating online gaming with offline scenarios is the future trend. Interactions between online and offline gaming can effectively boost the vitality of the market," said Chen Yu, CEO of the Quantum Studios under Tencent Interactive Entertainment.