Chinese social networking, gaming and video giant Tencent reported revenue of 192.9 billion yuan ($27.1 billion) for the third quarter of 2025, marking a 15% year-on-year increase as the company's strategic investments in artificial intelligence continue to pay dividends for its gaming and advertising businesses.
The internet technology company reported non-IFRS net profit attributable to shareholders of 70.6 billion yuan ($9.9 billion), up 18% year-on-year, according to published unaudited results. Non-IFRS data excludes certain non-recurring and non-cash items such as share-based compensation and acquisition-related costs, which management believes provides a clearer view of underlying operating results compared to results prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, the global accounting framework.
“We achieved strong revenue and profit growth in the third quarter of 2025, reflecting healthy trends in gaming, marketing services, fintech and business services,” said Ma Huateng, Chairman and CEO of Tencent. “Our strategic investments in artificial intelligence benefit us in business areas such as ad targeting and game experience, as well as value-added areas such as programming, game and video production.”
Ma discussed the company's progress in developing HunYuan's core model, noting that its imaging and 3D imaging capabilities are now industry leading. The company is also focusing on wider adoption of its AI assistant Yuanbao and developing agent-based AI capabilities in its Weixin super app.
Tencent's gaming division performed strongly, with value-added services revenue up 16% year-on-year to 95.9 billion yuan ($13.5 billion). Domestic gaming revenue reached 42.8 billion yuan (US$6 billion), up 15% year-on-year, driven by newly released games including “Delta Force,” which ranked among the top three games in the industry by gross revenue for the quarter. According to QuestMobile and Sensor Tower, the mobile version of Valorant has become the most successful mobile game launched in China since the beginning of the year.
International gaming revenue grew 43% year-on-year to 20.8 billion yuan ($2.9 billion), with Supercell's Clash Royale hitting records for monthly active users and gross revenue in September. The recently released Dying Light: The Beast received a “very positive” player rating of 87% on Steam.
Marketing services revenue jumped 21% year-on-year to 36.2 billion yuan ($5.1 billion), driven by higher user engagement, higher ad load and improved eCPM thanks to AI-based ad targeting. The company introduced AIM+, an automated ad campaign solution that allows advertisers to automate targeting, bidding, placement optimization and ad creation.
Fintech and business services revenue rose 10% year-on-year to 58.2 billion yuan ($8.2 billion), with commercial payments volume increasing from the second quarter as both online and offline payment trends improved.
Operational performance showed that the total number of monthly active users of Weixin and WeChat reached 1.414 billion as of Sept. 30, up 2% year-on-year. Tencent Video maintained its industry leadership with 114 million subscriptions, and Tencent Music with 126 million subscriptions.
Non-IFRS operating profit increased 18% year-on-year to 72.6 billion yuan (US$10.2 billion), while operating margin increased to 38% from 37% in the previous year. Free cash flow remained unchanged at RMB58.5 billion ($8.2 billion), while the company's net cash position stood at RMB102.4 billion ($14.4 billion), up 7% year-on-year.
During the quarter, Tencent repurchased about 35.4 million shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for a total value of about HK$21.1 billion (US$2.7 billion).
