THE tencent recorded US$27 billion (174.3 billion yuan) of revenue made with games in 2021. Altogether, the amount represents 31% of the Chinese giant’s total revenue, which, in turn, reached the mark of US$ 87.9 billion (560.1 billion yuan) – an increase of 16% year on year.
Operating profit was US$25 billion (159.5 billion yuan), or the equivalent of an increase of 7%. Annual profit was flat, growing by just 1%, or US$20.1 billion (127.9 billion yuan).
Although the company has faced challenges due to the reduction in time spent by young people with electronic games as a result of restrictions imposed by the Chinese government – which represented an 88% drop in time year over year, the home games segment had a value significant, accounting for US$20.2 billion (128.8 billion yuan) in 2021 or 23% of the company’s total game revenue.
That is, home games showed an annual growth of 6%. Meanwhile, international games accounted for revenue of US$7.1 billion (45.5 billion yuan). While this is the equivalent of just 8% of the company’s total gaming revenue, the international segment grew the most, showing a 31% increase over the previous year.
Remembering that the company last year launched a global game publishing division called Level Infinite — a bet to expand the company’s already growing investment in the sector.
League of Legends: Wild Rift and other Tencent games
Among the main titles that brought big gains for Tencent are Honor of Kings, as the first on the list and main source of income for the company in the games division, in addition to League of Legends: Wild Rift and The Battle of Golden Spatula.
Reproduction: publicity / Riot Games
Arcane, an animated series derived from LoL and which debuted on Netflix recently, was also a success cited by the company and which brought significant gains to the business. Currently, following the same vibe, the company is looking to create new games, animated series and movies based on Honor of Kings.
“2021 was a challenging year, in which we adopted changes and implemented certain measures that reinforced the company’s long-term sustainability, but had the effect of slowing our revenue growth,” noted the giant’s president and CEO, Ma Huateng.
“Despite financial headwinds, we continue to make strategic progress, including widespread adoption of our enterprise software and productivity tools, increasing content creation and consumption across our video accounts, and expanding our international gaming business.”
The Chinese giant owns several major gaming businesses around the world, including Riot Games, Sumo Group, Turtle Rock Studios, Sharkmob, Funcom, Wake Up Interactive and Leyou (which in turn owns Athlon Games, Digital Extremes and to Splash Damage).
It also holds stakes in Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, Supercell, Roblox, Epic Games, Netmarble, Paradox Interactive, Remedy Entertainment, Dontnod Entertainment, Bloober Team and Playtonic Games.
More recently, he became a majority shareholder in RiME’s Tequila Works and took minority stakes in Riffraff Games.
Via: GamesIndustry
