Growth in Tencent’s mobile business offset declines in its PC portfolio as the company’s online games business grew eight per cent to ¥27.3 billion ($3.9bn) in Q2 2019.
Mobile game revenue itself grew 26 per cent year-on-year to ¥22.2bn ($3.2bn), and up five per cent quarter-on-quarter.
Tencent highlighted the performance of key mobile titles such as Honor of Kings, PUBG Mobile, Red Alert and Perfect World Mobile as key contributors to its sales.
The Chinese publisher also noted that Peacekeeper Elite (Game for Peace / PUBG Mobile in China) had surpassed 50 million daily active users since launching in May. Sales from the game were limited in the quarter however due to the impact of revenue deferrals.
The company is currently in the early stages of implementing season passes into various key titles, which it claimed is a largely complementary monetisation system and enhances player activity.
PC decline
Tencent’s PC revenues were down nine per cent year-on-year and 15 per cent quarter-on-quarter to ¥11.7bn ($1.7bn). It blamed weak seasonality for the drop, though one positive it did highlight was growth in cash receipts for League of Legends, boosted by popular esports-themed skins.
The introduction of auto chess mode Teamfight Tactics within the title has also driven up League of Legends’ daily active user count, as well as increasing time spent in the game.
Overall revenue at Tencent grew 21 per cent year-on-year to $12.9bn in Q2. Operating profit meanwhile increased by 26 per cent to $4bn compared to the same period the year prior.
“During the second quarter, we sustained solid user, revenue and profit growth, and executed on key initiatives amid the challenging business environment,” said Tencent CEO Ma Huateng.
“In recent months, we have accelerated our rate of innovation in games, releasing successful new titles in several different genres, introducing new play modes, and extending our popular season passes. In the meantime, we continue to strengthen the Healthy Gameplay System for promoting balanced gameplay for young users.
“We have widened merchant adoption for our mobile payment services, contributing to rapid growth in average transaction and total payment volume. We have extended and deepened our exclusive relationship with the NBA, the most-watched professional sports league in China, reinforcing our position as a leading digital entertainment platform.
“Amid the evolving macro-economic and competitive challenges, we continue to invest in enhancing our platforms, services and technologies, for better supporting our users and enterprise customers.”
This story was originally published on PocketGamer.biz.
