Tencent online game revenues hit $3.56 billion in Q2
Mobile revenue exceeded PC for the first time thanks to the success of games like Honor of Kings
Tencent's second quarter results for the current financial year showed booming growth across games and its other divisions.
Tencent has a devoted appetitive for acquisitions and investments in the gaming sector, having acquired Riot Games, Supercell and Miniclip, while investing in a wealth of companies from Epic and Activision Blizzard to Discord and Playdots.
The figures released today relate to the three months leading up to June 30th 2017. In its Value Added Services devision - which collects online, PC and mobile games, as well as some social media and advertising services - Tencent's revenue increased 43% year-on-year to ¥36.8 billion ($5.4 billion) for the second quarter of 2017.
Online games revenue increased by 39% to ¥23.8 billion ($3.56 billion), which Tencent attributed to the success of mobile titles like Honour of Kings and the Chinese release Contra Return. Equally, PC titles League of Legends and Dungeon and Fighter are credited by the company as leading its growth.
"While our games business continued to grow, we have stepped up our effort to ensure users play games in a healthy manner"
In isolation, Tencent's PC games brought in ¥13.6 billion in revenue ($2.03 billion), representing 29% year-on-year growth. Mobile games alone - including games revenue attributable to Tencent social networks - earned ¥14.8 billion in revenue, or $2.2 billion. That equates to 54% year-on-year growth, marking the first time that mobile has outperformed PC gaming for the company.
Recent months have not been without challenges for Tencent. The remarkable success of Honor of Kings - recently released as Arena of Valor in Europe - drew much attention in China for its allegedly addictive qualities. Public and government pressure motivated Tencent to put play time restrictions on the game, meaning players under 12 years old can only spend an hour a day in the app, while under-18s have two hours in which to tackle the MOBA.
That led to a 4% dip in the value of Tencent's shares; equivalent to a $12 billion loss on the company's market value. Tencent insisted the impact of the restrictions would not have a material impact on its results, and in Q2 that certainly appears to be the case.
"During the second quarter of 2017, we delivered strong revenue growth from multiple businesses, which enabled us to reinvest in innovations and new technologies in an increasingly competitive industry," said Tencent CEO and chairman Ma Huateng. "While our games business continued to grow, we have stepped up our effort to ensure users play games in a healthy manner."
In 2016, Tencent cleared $10 billion in revenue from games. This quarter's results put it well on track to beat that by the end of both the current financial and calendar year.
Total revenues across the Tencent business hit ¥106,158 million ($15.6 billion) for the interim financial half year, demonstrating an increase of 57% over the first half of 2016 year-on-year.