Tencent game international market annual revenue exceeded 30% for the first time

On the evening of March 20, Tencent announced its 2023 fourth quarter and full-year results. The financial report shows that Tencent's online game business revenue in 2023 was 179.9 billion yuan, up 5.4% year on year. Among them, the revenue of the international market in 2023 in Tencent's total game revenue accounted for the first time to 30%, becoming the new growth engine of Tencent's game.

Games are Tencent's trump card business, and games going overseas is Tencent's biggest hope for internationalization at present.In the third quarter of 2019, Tencent disclosed its revenue from the international game market for the first time in its financial report, and said that in terms of online games, handheld games developed, published and operated by Tencent, such as PUBG MOBILE and Call of Duty Mobile, were a big hit in the international market.

At the end of 2021, Tencent Games announced the establishment of Level Infinite, an international brand, to further develop its presence in overseas markets. Ma Xiaoyi, Senior Vice President of the company, treats the global market as three different battlegrounds. Outside of the Chinese market, there are truly mature markets such as Europe, America and Japan, as well as rapidly emerging markets such as Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. In response to the characteristics of different markets, Tencent Games has also made a targeted layout. At present, Level Infinite has a total of more than 20 game products such as PUBG MOBILE and VRising, covering a wide range of categories such as tactical competition, open-world RPG, survival construction and MOBA.

In 2023, Tencent's subsidiary Aceville acquired a further stake in Shift Up for 79.9 billion won (roughly Rs. 433 million) from Amusement, which developed Goddess of Victory: Nikki, a game that surpassed $400 million in global revenues in mid-2023 and is on track to enter the $1 billion club as early as 2024. This game is also an important contributor to Tencent's 2023 game overseas, and its overseas revenue scale is second only to Tencent's PUBG MOBILE. PUBG MOBILE overcame the effects of declining player activity in 2022 to resume significant growth in 2023. As of December 2023, PUBG MOBILE's total revenue was approaching $4.5 billion, including nearly $500 million in the second half of 2023, according to Sensor Tower.

In 2019, Ma Xiaoyi put forward such expectations for Tencent games: the revenue share of overseas markets can exceed half in the future. The first time to break through the 30% share of the international market also allows Tencent games to have a greater voice overseas, and I believe that Tencent games in the future will connect more excellent game players in the overseas market.