Tencent game sales up 24% Y/Y to $25bn in Q1 with Honor of Kings, Delta Force and Brawl Stars pulling their weight

Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent generated ¥180 billion ($25bn) in revenue during Q1 2025, up 13% year-over-year.

Gross profit of ¥100.5bn ($13.9bn) was recorded, a 20% Y/Y increase. Meanwhile, operating profit rose 18% to ¥69.3bn ($9.6bn).

Of Tencent’s revenue total for the quarter, games sales rose by 24% Y/Y to ¥42.9bn ($6bn). Notably, this also meant 24% of Tencent’s total revenue came from games in the latest quarter.

Evergreen and newly seen

Tencent’s games revenue was bolstered by evergreen titles Honor of Kings and CrossFire Mobile, which "achieved record high levels of gross receipts during the seasonally strong first quarter".

More recent releases like Dungeon & Fighter Mobile in China and Delta Force were also highlighted as boons to the company’s Q1 growth, with the latter having reached a new domestic record 12 million post-launch DAUs.

Developed by Tencent subsidiary Team Jade, the tactical shooter entered open beta late last year before the mobile version followed with a global launch on April 21st, 2025.

Tencent stated that Delta Force was the sixth most popular mobile game by DAUs industry-wide after global launch, as well as "the highest-DAU new game released in the last three years".

Notably, ¥16.6bn ($2.3bn) of Tencent’s games revenue came from international titles during the quarter, marking a 23% rise Y/Y. This was driven by PUBG Mobile and Supercell’s Brawl Stars and Clash Royale, benefiting Tencent through its majority stake in the Finnish company.

Brawl Stars had a major comeback in 2024, outearning the entirety of 2023 in just four months.

Outside of games, this Q1 also saw Tencent roll out AI features in social media platform WeChat - home to the lucrative Minigames business - and enhance the generative AI capabilities of its advertising technology platform. The tech giant’s social networks revenue was up by 7% YoY, remaining smaller than its games sector at ¥32.6bn ($4.5bn).

"During the first quarter of 2025, our high-quality revenue streams sustained their solid growth trajectory," said Tencent chairman and CEO Ma Huateng.

"AI capabilities already contributed tangibly to businesses, such as performance advertising and evergreen games. We also stepped up our spending on new AI opportunities, such as the Yuanbao application and AI in Weixin.

"We expect these strategic AI investments will create value for users and society, and generate substantial incremental returns for us over the longer term."