ISTANBUL

Chinese tech giant Tencent posted a 13% year-on-year jump in its revenue on Wednesday, fueled by significant growth in its key gaming unit.

The company reported a revenue of 180.02 billion yuan ($25 billion) in the first quarter of 2025, according to a statement by Tencent.

The net profit of Tencent also climbed by 14% year-on-year to 47.8 billion yuan ($6.63 billion) in the same period.

Revenues from its popular games power Tencent's overall performance, making it one of the biggest gaming firms in the world.

Due to the success of "Honor of Kings" and "Peacekeeper Elite," as well as more recent games like "DnF Mobile," domestic game revenue—that is, sales from China—rose 24% year-on-year to 42.9 billion yuan ($5.95 billion).

The firm's international gaming division brought in 16.6 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) in revenue, a 23% increase from the previous year, thanks to games such as "Brawl Stars" and "PUBG Mobile."

Tencent is also the company behind WeChat, the largest messaging app in China with in-app mini games and over 1.4 billion monthly active users.

"During the first quarter of 2025, our high-quality revenue streams sustained their solid growth trajectory. AI capabilities already contributed tangibly to our businesses, such as performance advertising and evergreen games," the firm said in the statement.

"We also stepped up our spending on new AI opportunities, such as the Yuanbao application and AI in Weixin. We believe the operating leverage from our existing high-quality revenue streams will help absorb the additional costs associated with these AI-related investments and contribute to healthy financial performance during this investment phase," it added.