Tencent reports strong growth in third quarter and reaches $27 billion in revenue
Chinese social media, gaming and video giant Tencent reported revenue of RMB 192.9 billion ($27.1 billion) for the third quarter of 2025, an increase of 15% year-on-year, as the company’s strategic investments in AI continue to pay dividends in its gaming and advertising businesses.
The internet and technology company reported non-IFRS net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB70.6 billion ($9.9 billion), up 18% year-on-year, according to published unaudited results. The non-IFRS figures exclude certain one-time and non-cash items such as share-based compensation and acquisition-related costs, providing what management believes is a clearer view of core operating performance compared to results prepared under International Financial Reporting Standards, the global accounting framework.
“During the third quarter of 2025, we achieved solid revenue and profit growth, reflecting healthy trends in gaming, marketing services, fintech and business services,” said Ma Huateng, chairman and CEO of Tencent. “Our strategic investments in AI benefit us in business areas such as ad targeting and gaming engagement, as well as efficiency improvement areas such as game and video coding and production.
Ma highlighted the progress the company has made with its HunYuan foundation model, noting that its image generation and 3D capabilities are now industry-leading. The company is also focused on increasing adoption of its AI assistant Yuanbao and developing agentic AI capabilities within its super-app Weixin.
Tencent’s gaming division performed strongly, with value-added service revenue up 16% year-on-year to RMB95.9 billion ($13.5 billion). Domestic game revenue reached RMB 42.8 billion ($6 billion), up 15 percent year-on-year, driven by recently released titles, including “Delta Force,” which ranked among the top three games in the industry in terms of gross revenue during the quarter. The mobile version of “Valorant” has become the most successful mobile game launch in China since the beginning of the year, according to data from QuestMobile and Sensor Tower.
International gaming revenue jumped 43% year-on-year to RMB20.8 billion ($2.9 billion), with Supercell’s “Clash Royale” hitting all-time highs in monthly daily active users and gross revenue in September. The recently released title “Dying Light: The Beast” received a “very positive” score of 87% from player reviews on Steam.
Marketing services revenue jumped 21% year-over-year to RMB 36.2 billion ($5.1 billion), benefiting from increased user engagement, higher ad load and improved eCPM thanks to AI-based ad targeting. The company introduced its AIM+ automated ad campaign solution, which allows advertisers to automate optimization of ad targeting, bidding, placement and creation.
FinTech and business services revenue increased 10% year-on-year to RMB58.2 billion ($8.2 billion), with commercial payments volume accelerating from the second quarter on improving online and offline payment trends.
Operational metrics showed that the combined monthly active users of Weixin and WeChat reached 1.414 billion as of September 30, up 2% year-on-year. Tencent Video maintained its position as the industry leader with 114 million subscriptions, while Tencent Music held 126 million subscriptions.
On a non-IFRS basis, operating profit increased 18% year-on-year to RMB72.6 billion ($10.2 billion), with operating margin up to 38% from 37% the previous year. Free cash flow remained stable at RMB58.5 billion ($8.2 billion), while the company’s net cash position totaled RMB102.4 billion ($14.4 billion), up 7% year-on-year.
Tencent repurchased approximately 35.4 million shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange during the quarter for an aggregate consideration of approximately HKD21.1 billion ($2.7 billion).
