China's commercial companionship market is experiencing notable growth across multiple sectors, ranging from paid gaming partners to immersive romantic role-playing games and live-streaming entertainment. As social isolation and daily pressures persist, consumers are increasingly turning to paid services to secure non-judgmental company, light conversation, and emotional validation.
The trend is prominent in the online video game sector, where players hire companion teammates, known as lianpei, to navigate complex titles without experiencing hostility from random internet users. When the cooperative horror game "Shift at Midnight" grew popular following its release in August 2026, its requirement for a three-player team prompted introverted and casual gamers to hire two paid companions rather than recruit strangers in open game lobbies, avoiding potential pressure, blame, and verbal hostility over gameplay errors.
In "Shift at Midnight," players work the night shift at a supermarket, identifying disguised monsters among customers, restocking inventory, cleaning facilities, and battling creatures after dark. During one five-hour session, hired companions handled store maintenance and fighting while offering early warnings before frightening moments. Although the client died seconds into the final boss encounter, the companions completed the battle and earned enough in-game currency to save the team's pet cat, though they failed to rescue a police officer character who was killed, yielding one of the game's designated bad endings.
While casual gaming companions focus primarily on achieving game objectives and offering relaxed interaction, other segments of the companionship economy concentrate directly on romantic intimacy and role-playing. Standard immersive role-playing game sessions typically cost slightly over 100 yuan per person. In contrast, romantic role-play sessions regularly cost between 200 and 300 yuan per participant or more, with specialized sessions occasionally exceeding 1,000 yuan.
The financial scale of these services has raised public concern regarding potential consumer exploitation. Media reporting in August 2026 uncovered a high-profile case in Shanghai, where a 16-year-old girl reportedly spent approximately 170,000 yuan on romantic role-play sessions over a two-year period. The teenager booked hundreds of sessions at the same venue, leading her family to accuse the business of encouraging excessive spending and taking advantage of a minor.
Service providers, including lianpei companions and Dungeon Masters (DMs), typically frame their offerings as formal, hourly business transactions designed to fulfill specific requests. However, emotional boundaries frequently blur. Despite recognizing that the interactions are paid and scripted, customers frequently develop genuine feelings for their companions over repeated sessions.
A similar dynamic drives viewer engagement on major Chinese streaming platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, where hosts sing, dance, or converse with audiences to earn digital gifts. In one livestream instance, a single viewer sent ten "Carnival" gifts—worth 3,000 yuan each—within five seconds, amounting to 30,000 yuan. Media outlets have documented cases of individuals spending hundreds of thousands to millions of yuan on livestream hosts they have never met in person, hoping to convert paid attention into an authentic relationship.
This commercial model draws on a long historical precedent of people paying for companionship and affection, echoing themes seen in classical Chinese literature such as the story of Du Shiniang, who threw her treasure chest into a river and ended her life after learning her lover prioritized money over genuine love. Modern technology and smartphone connectivity have made accessing and sustaining simulated closeness easier than ever, though consumers frequently express regret, anger, and feelings of manipulation once financial transactions end while emotional attachments remain.
This is an extreme case, but it reveals how much greed and tragedy can be associated with this type of transaction. Both gaming companions and DMs tend to describe what they do as a service. They make this sound like a very strict business transaction, where customers pay for and receive a specific service.
Attempting to purchase intimacy is not new. Paying for companionship, sex, matchmaking, and the attention of others is a phenomenon as old as recorded history. The psychology behind these transactions is actually quite simple. We want to feel wanted and we want to believe that we are special to someone. We want to feel loved.
