Mobile versions of Call of Duty and PUBG driving game revenue at Tencent

Tencent's online games revenues rose by 25 percent year-on-year to RMB 30.3 billion ($4.2 billion) during the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2019, with the Chinese company attributing that upswing to the positive performances of smartphone titles on home soil and overseas. 

The company explained the likes of PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile, and the 'Teamfight Tactics' mode within League of Legends were some of its biggest earners. It also noted that international game revenues more than doubled year-on-year as a result of those games, with overseas revenue representing 23 percent of Tencent's overall online games revenue during the fourth quarter of 2019.

Elsewhere, the firm seemed pleased with its internal development and esports efforts, revealing that "as of the end of 2019, five out of the top ten most-popular smartphone games by DAU (daily active users) internationally were developed by us."

"In addition to establishing our original IP franchises, we developed external partnerships via a number of new investments in best-in-genre studios. Key studios such as Timi and Lightspeed & Quantum under Tencent, as well as Riot Games and Supercell, have enhanced their R&D capability, and each have several promising games in its pipeline," added the company. 

"Leveraging our flagship games franchises, we strengthened our eSports global leadership with League of Legend’s World Championship and Honour of Kings’ KPL, which were the most watched events for PC and smart phone games, respectively."

Moving forward, Tencent intends to "enhance its capabilities" in genres such as role-playing games, and will look to reinforce its international and domestic success with multiple new releases. 

Looking briefly across the company as a whole, Tencent saw full-year revenues rise by 21 percent to RMB 377.3 billion ($53.2 billion), while profits increased by 19 percent to RMB 93.3 million ($13.2 billion) over the same period.