NetEase CEO William Ding has underlined the company’s mobile diversification strategy beyond MMORPGs as a major driver for growth in 2Q18.

For the second quarter ended June 30th 2018 NetEase's revenue increased 21.7 per cent year-on-year to $2.5 billion, while profit jumped up 7.5 per cent year-on-year to $1.1 billion.

Revenue for NetEase's online games services arm, which includes mobile, grew 6.7 per cent to $1.5 billion.  

Battle royale title Knives Out was singled out for doing well in Japan and was ranked first for June’s iOS top grossing chart.

Horror game Identity V also received plaudits for its popularity in Japan, reaching the top spot for downloads on iOS and Google Play in early July.

Widening the net

"We are pleased with the solid growth we achieved across all of our business segments, including online games, e-commerce and advertising services, and the strong improvement to our bottom line," said Ding.

“On the mobile game side, our diversification strategy to expand our games portfolio beyond the MMORPG genre is proving effective.

“During the second quarter, we launched a number of highly successful games in non-MMORPG categories, including Shadowverse, Identity V and QwQ, each of which climbed to the top of the charts in China.

“With a number of new titles suitable for a global audience, we have quickly gained traction in overseas markets, led by games such as Knives Out and Identity V.”

In an earlier interview with PocketGamer.Biz, Identity V product manager Sylar Pan confirmed that Identity V snagged 50 million downloads in China during its first month alone and hit 100 million globally.

Pan also confirmed that the asymmetrical multiplayer title had exceeded 10 million daily active users.