Making games more fun with AI is only the second concern of Tencent.

Text by | Lan Jie

Edited by | Qiao Qian

On March 19th, Tencent released its full - year and Q4 financial reports for 2025, showing a still - robust performance. Among them, games remain Tencent's core business, contributing over 30% of the revenue.

In 2025, Tencent's revenue from domestic market games reached 164.2 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 18%. This was due to the strong performance of "Delta Force", as well as the revenue growth of evergreen games such as "Honor of Kings" and "Peacekeeper Elite", and the "Valorant" series (PC and mobile versions).

The revenue from international market games was 77.4 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 33%. This was thanks to the revenue growth of games under Supercell and "PUBG MOBILE", as well as the incremental revenue contribution of "Nirvana: The Awakening".

Looking back on the past year, AI is undoubtedly the core keyword for Tencent and also for its game business.

In the financial reports and earnings calls, Tencent's management emphasized more than once the important role of AI in games, including how it is implemented in games and how it makes games more fun.

For example, there are AI teammates in "Peacekeeper Elite" and the intelligent companion "Lingbao" in "Honor of Kings".

The financial report describes the role of AI in games as follows: "By deploying AI in games, we have accelerated content production, improved the user experience, and enhanced our marketing effectiveness."

To some extent, the implementation of AI in games is a story that Tencent has to tell and is also part of Tencent's strategy for making games evergreen.

In the past year, Tencent's spending on AI has been rising continuously. According to the financial report, Tencent's general and administrative expenses in 2025 reached 136.1 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 21%. This is the largest expenditure item and has the highest year - on - year growth among all expenditures, due to the increase in R & D, investment, and talent costs related to AI. Investors have also frequently asked whether the revenue and profit can outpace the expenditure.

Meanwhile, 2025 is also the year when multi - modal large models are fully implemented, and games have become an extremely suitable implementation scenario and display window.

Rather than whether games have become more fun because of AI, what investors are more curious about regarding Tencent is how AI can reduce costs in the game development process and how it can improve efficiency and the quantity of games.

In response, Tencent's Chief Strategy Officer, James Mitchell, said that quantity is not Tencent's pursuit. "We hope that those top - notch games can remain popular for a long time." "How to keep excellent games excellent and successful, and how to create more hit games are what we should focus on the most."

Also on March 19th, Tencent officially announced another set of data - the DAU (Daily Active Users) of "Delta Force" has reached 50 million. This means that this shooting game launched in September 2024 has joined the ranks of Tencent's evergreen games, alongside masterpieces such as "Honor of Kings" and "Peacekeeper Elite".

Tencent's long - term operation strategy has contributed to the current success of "Delta Force". In October 2025, this game was widely questioned due to the lack of fairness in its gameplay. It once received over 500,000 negative reviews, and its single - day revenue dropped by over 60%.

Since making evergreen games has become Tencent's main task, how to enrich the existing evergreen game matrix has become a test for Tencent. Fortunately, in the field of competitive games it excels in, it has delivered the answer in the form of "Delta Force".

Tencent's long - term game operation strategies include, but are not limited to, game platformization and multi - terminal development. The former can be understood as continuously adding more gameplay, scenarios, content, and social features to a game. In essence, it aims to make the game itself a platform and a traffic entry point. The latter refers to launching a game on multiple platforms. For example, "Valorant", which was praised in the financial report, first launched its PC version in 2023 and then its mobile version, "Valorant: Pulsefire", two years later. The two channels jointly drove Tencent's game revenue last year. "In 2025, the total revenue of 'Valorant' mobile game was the highest among new mobile games, providing players with an experience comparable to that of the PC version and being deeply loved by young players." James Mitchell said at the earnings call.

The strategy of evergreen games also intersects with Tencent's game overseas expansion strategy. In 2025, Tencent's game revenue from the international market recorded double - digit growth year - on - year, a significant increase compared to the 9% growth in 2024, and it officially exceeded the annual revenue mark of $10 billion. The financial report attributes the growth to "the continuous growth of evergreen games and the rapid expansion of content - driven games".

Looking back at the games that contributed the main revenue in the international segment, there is also "PUBG MOBILE", an old acquaintance that has appeared several times in Tencent's annual reports.

In addition, in April last year, the international mobile version of Tencent's self - developed game "Delta Force", "Delta Force", was launched and once topped the free lists of the App Store in 169 countries and regions.

However, compared to its goal of achieving a 50 - 50 split between domestic and overseas game revenue, its progress is not significant. In 2025, the revenue from Tencent's overseas games accounted for about 32% of its total game revenue, and this figure was about 29% in 2024, with little year - on - year change.