From Coupons to Season Passes: Player Migration in Tencent's Earnings Reports

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 18:54:19 +0800

If you only look at a single day’s bestseller chart, the gaming industry looks like a track where the runners keep changing: today it’s MOBA, tomorrow it’s shooters, and the day after that a new strategy or RPG emerges. But when you line up Tencent’s fifteen years of financial reports, a different picture emerges: genres haven’t simply replaced one another—the entry points, life cycles, and monetization triggers of products are stratified.

This is also why Tencent is suitable as a “weather vane for the gaming industry,” but cannot serve as a complete industry dashboard. Its financial reports are long enough to show the shifting gears between PC clients, mobile, domestic, and overseas markets; however, it does not fully break down annual revenue by categories such as “how much MOBA games earned, how much shooter games earned.” Apple’s China App Store top-grossing games page, on the other hand, is like a display window—it reveals which products on a particular platform at a particular moment are still compelling enough for users to pay for them, but it cannot replace comprehensive market statistics.

First, Separate the Three Rulers

When reading this kind of material, the first step is not to look for the biggest number, but to first confirm what the number is measuring.

The most stable line item in Tencent’s financial reports is “online games revenue”; in recent years, management discussion has further broken games down into “domestic games” and “international games,” while also separately disclosing mobile games and PC client-side games. The former represents business or regional classifications, while the latter represents device and revenue attribution classifications. They can complement each other, but should not be treated as the same table and added together.

All amounts in the following table are in RMB billions; the 2016 figure is the sum of the four quarters, and the 2021–2025 figures are the sum of the domestic and international segments. Both the latter two totals are editor-calculated and are not revenue broken down by game type.

Period	Tencent Publicly Disclosed Figure	Basis	What This Set of Figures Illustrates
2010	9.51 billion yuan	Online games revenue	PC/social ecosystem products such as MMOG, advanced casual, and QQ Games had already become growth engines
2015	56.59 billion yuan; approximately 21.3 billion yuan from smartphone games	Former figure is online games; latter is gross-to-gross	Smartphone games began forming an independent growth layer by migrating from PC IPs
2016	Approximately 70.84 billion yuan	Sum of online games revenue across four quarters, editor’s calculation	Mobile PvP and RPG products entered a phase of rapid volume expansion
2017	97.88 billion yuan	Online games revenue	Smartphone games continued to drive the overall pie; PC users migrated but the client segment did not shrink to zero
2020	156.10 billion yuan	Online games revenue	Contributions increased from smartphone products such as Honor of Kings, Game for Peace, and PUBG Mobile, along with overseas business
2021	174.3 billion yuan	Domestic 128.8 billion yuan + international 45.5 billion yuan, editor’s calculation	Tencent began to more clearly present two distinct game businesses: domestic and international
2022	170.7 billion yuan	Domestic 123.9 billion yuan + international 46.8 billion yuan, editor’s calculation	Domestic faced pressure while international continued to grow; the importance of product cycles and distribution regions rose
2023	179.9 billion yuan	Domestic 126.7 billion yuan + international 53.2 billion yuan, editor’s calculation	International games accounted for approximately 29.6% of the combined two segments
2024	197.7 billion yuan	Domestic 139.7 billion yuan + international 58.0 billion yuan, editor’s calculation	Evergreen domestic products, new releases, and overseas portfolio together pushed revenue higher
2025	241.6 billion yuan	Domestic 164.2 billion yuan + international 77.4 billion yuan, editor’s calculation	International games accounted for approximately 32.0%; multi-platform and globalization became a more important growth layer

In 2010, online game revenue was RMB 9.51 billion, a year-over-year increase of 76.6%. At the time, Tencent’s flagship titles included Dungeon & Fighter, CrossFire, QQ Dancer, QQ Speed, and QQ Games, with web games and children’s games also mentioned. The keyword here is not any specific genre, but rather “client plus social relationships”: players must invest time, products need a reason for continuous online presence, and monetization revolves around virtual items, identity, and competitive positioning. This is a behavioral inference based on product form, not a genre revenue breakdown from the financial report. Tencent 2010 Annual Report

In 2015, Tencent’s online game revenue reached ¥56.59 billion; the company also disclosed smartphone game revenue of approximately ¥21.3 billion on a gross-to-gross basis, a year-over-year increase of 53%. These two figures cannot be added together, but together they demonstrate that mobile is no longer just a supplementary screen for PC games: mature IP, social distribution, and lower device barriers have moved what was once a client-based gaming business into larger everyday scenarios. Tencent 2015 Annual Report

The First Shift: It’s Not That PCs Disappeared, But the Entry Point Got Lighter

The online game revenues for the four quarters of 2016 were approximately 17.085 billion, 17.124 billion, 18.166 billion, and 18.469 billion yuan, totaling about 70.84 billion yuan. This is the editorial calculation in this article, not the full-year figure separately listed by Tencent in its annual report. By 2017, Tencent’s online game revenue had reached 97.88 billion yuan. The original announcements for each of the four quarters can be found in the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, and fourth quarter.

What is even more noteworthy is the misalignment between revenue and user behavior. In Q4 2017, Tencent disclosed that smartphone game revenue was approximately 16.9 billion yuan, while PC client-side games generated about 12.8 billion yuan; active users in mobile games remained healthy, but ARPU declined quarter-over-quarter. In other words, new users first expanded the overall scale, but did not necessarily contribute a proportional amount of revenue in their first quarter. For the company, this was a period of traffic expansion; for players, it marked a shift from “I’m willing to sit in front of the computer for a long time” to “I can drop in for a quick match anytime.” Tencent 2017 Annual Report

This round of migration has brought about a combination of genres, rather than a one-way replacement: MOBAs suit short matches and ongoing competition, RPGs bring growth, gear, and IP to mobile, shooting products strengthen real-time combat, and racing products bring the controls and social relationships of old PC games to mobile. In the first quarter of 2018, Tencent stated that Honor of Kings ranked first on the China iOS best-selling chart, and QQ Speed Mobile also held a leading position; the company also specifically mentioned that the latter attracted both veteran PC players and a large number of new users. Tencent Q1 2018 Results

Therefore, the first generation of mobile paid user profiles is not “younger people replacing veteran players”—this demographic judgment cannot be supported by any publicly available cross-tabulated statistics. A more accurate statement is: the entry cost for paying users has decreased, and spending still revolves around winning, progression, cosmetics, and social identity, but users can now engage with more fragmented time slots. The short-term divergence between scaling up the user base and per-user spending is precisely the financial footprint left by this shift.

The Second Gear Shift: Games Start Selling “Continuous Engagement”

Once mobile games matured, the changes went beyond simply porting a PC title onto a smaller screen. Products began to be designed as continuously updated services: seasons, battle passes, skins, events, leaderboards, and esports content—turning what was originally a one-time purchase of items into recurring spending within each cycle.

In Q2 2019, Tencent noted that the season passes of several key games were still in their early stages, with related spending largely complementary to existing in-game item sales while also boosting engagement. Meanwhile, newly launched racing, strategy, and RPG titles all entered the top ten of the China iOS grossing chart during the same period. Tencent Q2 2019 Results

The “pass” here is not a magical new tax, but a shift in the monetization trigger: players are not just buying a single item at a single moment, but paying for the next season, the next round of quests, the next tier of identity, and the qualification for continued participation. For operators, this ties revenue to activity, content updates, and community events; for players, the reason to pay expands from “owning an item” to “not falling out of this shared progression.” The strength of this mechanic varies across different products and cannot be written as a uniform rule for the entire industry, but it explains why long-running products increasingly resemble services rather than one-time software purchases.

In 2020, Tencent’s online game revenue reached 156.10 billion yuan. The company also disclosed that smartphone game revenue was approximately 146.61 billion yuan, while PC client-side games generated about 44.58 billion yuan, with the mobile figures including portions attributable to the social networks business. These three figures are not on the same classification axis—146.61 plus 44.58 cannot be directly compared against 156.10; however, they clearly demonstrate that mobile has become the primary battlefield for Tencent’s game revenue, while PC remains a significant foundation. In the fourth quarter of 2020, Tencent’s international game revenue was approximately 9.8 billion yuan, representing year-over-year growth of 43%, with products such as Game for Peace, Honor of Kings, PUBG Mobile, and Moonlight Blade Mobile cited by the company as the main contributors.Tencent Q4 and Full-Year 2020 Results

The Third Gear Shift: Evergreen at Home, Relay Overseas, Light and Heavy Asset Layers Coexisting

Since 2021, Tencent has separated its domestic games from its international games. Adding the two segments together by year, the international revenue share has risen from about 26.1% to about 32.0% in 2025. This is not a case of “domestic players are no longer paying,” but rather the same company is rolling out a business with a longer product cycle into more regions.

Year	Domestic Games	International Games	Total of Both Segments	International Share (Editor-calculated)
2021	128.8 billion CNY	45.5 billion CNY	174.3 billion CNY	26.1%
2022	123.9 billion CNY	46.8 billion CNY	170.7 billion CNY	27.4%
2023	126.7 billion CNY	53.2 billion CNY	179.9 billion CNY	29.6%
2024	139.7 billion CNY	58.0 billion CNY	197.7 billion CNY	29.3%
2025	164.2 billion CNY	77.4 billion CNY	241.6 billion CNY	32.0%

The most valuable aspect of this chart is not portraying it as a perpetually upward curve. In 2022, domestic game revenue declined, and Tencent attributed the decline to the implementation of minor protection measures and a lack of new releases; in 2023, domestic recovery was only in the low single digits, and only after new products such as VALORANT, Dungeon & Fighter: Origin, and Delta Force, together with evergreen titles like Honor of Kings and Game for Peace, did growth get back on track. On the international side, long-running products across different regions—such as PUBG Mobile, Supercell’s titles, and VALORANT—took turns carrying the momentum. What repeatedly appears in the earnings reports is actually product cycle and portfolio management, rather than any single genre winning out forever. Tencent 2021 Annual Results, Tencent 2022 Annual Results, Tencent 2023 Annual Report, Tencent 2024 Results Highlights, Tencent 2025 Annual Results

Industry data also doesn’t support the narrative that “some genre is dead.” Reports from the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association show that among the top 100 mobile products by revenue in 2023, RPGs accounted for 29.55%, multiplayer online tactical battle arenas for 17.01%, and shooters for 14.70%; by 2025, multiplayer online tactical battle arenas rose to 19.45%, shooters reached 18.29%, and RPGs still held 15.10%. The share of RPGs has been squeezed, but it remains a major genre; what’s really happening is that competitive and shooter genres have gained more weight among high-revenue products, and competition between genres has shifted from “is anyone playing” to “who can continuously capture users’ time and spending slots.” 2023 China Game Industry Report, 2024 China Game Industry Report, 2025 China Game Industry Report

Putting types and monetization in one table makes the changes clearer. The “top 100 by revenue” here is the industry report’s classification of leading mobile products, not Tencent’s category revenue; mini-games represent a different product format and monetization metric.

Year	Mobile Games Share of Domestic Market	Main Types of Top 100 Mobile Products by Revenue	Mini-Game Revenue and Monetization
2023	74.88%	RPG 29.55%; Multiplayer Tactical Arena 17.01%; Shooting 14.70%	Approximately 20 billion CNY; in-app purchases growing, ad monetization declining
2024	73.12%	Multiplayer Tactical Arena 17.99%; RPG 17.85%; Shooting 13.89%	39.836 billion CNY; in-app purchases approximately 68.7%
2025	73.29%	Multiplayer Tactical Arena 19.45%; Shooting 18.29%; RPG 15.10%	53.535 billion CNY; in-app purchases 68.11%, ads 31.89%

This table sends two signals that cannot be ignored: mobile games hold over seventy percent of market share, yet the top revenue is increasingly concentrating on products that enable sustained competition among users; on the other hand, in-app purchases in mini-games account for nearly seventy percent, meaning that lightweight entry points do not equal an ad-only model.

The structural composition of overseas types is also not entirely the same. In the report, the top category among the top 100 China-developed mobile products in overseas revenue has been Strategy for consecutive years, accounting for 41.38% in 2024 and rising to 49.96% in 2025; Shooting and RPG also rank among the top. Therefore, the growth in Tencent’s international gaming revenue cannot be understood merely as translating domestically popular products for overseas markets; it also involves rematching monetization habits across different markets for Strategy, Shooting, and long-term operations.

At the same time, the casual market is forming another layer of business. In 2025, domestic mini-game revenue reached approximately 53.535 billion yuan, with in-app purchases accounting for about 68.11% and ads about 31.89%. This shows that “low barrier to entry” does not mean “no payment at all”: users may first enter through social networks or mini-programs, try it out for a short time, and purchase levels, resources, or chances to draw at very low decision-making costs, or they may only contribute ad views. Casual games and hardcore long-term games are not an either-or choice, but rather place different intensities of time and willingness to pay into the same market.

What the Apple Charts Can Tell Us About the “Present Tense”

As of August 27, 2026, Apple’s China region “Top Grossing Games” page simultaneously features titles such as Honor of Kings, Game for Peace, Delta Force, Valorant: Source Action, CrossFire: Gunfight King, Happy Match, Fantasy Westward Journey, Path to Nowhere, and Three Kingdoms: Strategy Edition. These titles span a variety of genres including multiplayer competitive, shooter, role-playing, strategy, card, puzzle, and casual. Apple China Top Grossing Games Page

The most valuable aspect of this page is not any particular ranking, but the “simultaneity”: legacy products still appear in the bestseller paid chart, while new shooting and strategy titles also enter the same chart, and RPG, card, and puzzle titles have not disappeared from the showcase. It transforms the rather abstract notions of “evergreen” and “new releases” found in financial reports into an observable consumption snapshot.

But the boundaries must be firmly set. The Apple page is a dynamically edited showcase and does not provide complete revenue figures; third-party platforms’ revenue estimates for China’s App Store typically only account for in-app purchases within the App Store, excluding Android third-party channels and advertising. Sensor Tower’s public analysis for the first quarter of 2024 is defined by such limitations: it observed that Honor of Kings revenue grew 16% year-over-year and maintained the top spot on China’s App Store bestseller chart, but this is not Tencent’s audited financial report, nor is it China’s total channel-wide revenue. Sensor Tower Asia-Pacific Mobile Games Report

Therefore, the Apple charts are well-suited for answering: “Which products are iOS users with high spending pouring their money into at this moment?” They are not suited for answering: “How much did Tencent earn from each category this year?” The charts lack sufficient data to answer the latter question.

User Payment Profiles Have Shifted from “Crowds” to “Scenarios”

If we put income, products, and rankings together, a more reliable profile is not based on age, gender, and income, but rather on five types of behavioral scenarios that can be observed from business actions.

The first is the “pay for time and position” model of the client era. Players first invest long hours building up characters, gear, ranks, and community relationships, and then pay for efficiency, appearance, competitive standing, or identity. Its entry barrier is high, but once relationships are formed, the switching cost is also high. The MMOGs, advanced casual games, and QQ ecosystem products named by Tencent in 2010 were the early forms of this business. This is an inductive summary based on product forms, not publicly disclosed cross-user statistics from Tencent.

The second is the “low barrier to entry, strong participation-based spending” of the mobile era. Users do not need to purchase software first, nor do they need to dedicate entire nights to games; yet in competition, progression, social interaction, and leaderboards, they will still spend money to catch up faster, maintain a winning rate, or express their identity. The combination of “healthy active users with declining ARPU quarter-over-quarter” in 2017 indicates that this market first embraced a larger number of people, then waited for a portion of them to settle into stable paying users.

The third type is the “seasonal and collection-based payment” of long-term service. Season passes, skins, events, limited-time content, and ongoing updates turn payment from a one-time action into a recurring choice. What users buy is not just items, but also the qualification to participate, companion progression, and visible identity over a period of time. Its frequency is higher, but it also relies more heavily on operational quality; when content is interrupted, the justification for payment quickly weakens.

The fourth category is “low-friction hybrid monetization” for casual and mini-games. Users may arrive through social sharing, search, short videos, or mini-program entry points, and start with a trial measured in just a few minutes; some make direct in-app purchases, while others exchange ad views for resources. From 2024 to 2025, in-app purchases in the industry’s mini-games accounted for approximately 68%–69%, indicating that lightweight users are not unwilling to pay—they simply need shorter decision chains and lower trial-and-error costs.

The fifth is “regionalized long-tail monetization” in the post-globalization era. The revenue gap between Tencent’s domestic and overseas segments has not disappeared, but the international share continues to rise. Among the high-revenue categories of Chinese self-developed games going overseas, the combination of strategy, shooter, and RPG also does not exactly match the best-selling lineup domestically. User spending is no longer determined solely by product genre — it also depends on the community, competition, and long-term operations familiar to local players.

These personas are not mutually exclusive audiences. A person may hold long-term investment in a familiar competitive game on PC, pay for seasons and skins on mobile, and occasionally watch ads or buy a resource pack in a casual game. The so-called “player migration” is, more accurately, the same group of consumers shifting their monetization triggers across different entry points and different time budgets.

Finally, Don’t Mistake Shifting Gears for Substitution

Combining Tencent’s financial reports and Apple’s charts, the easiest wrong conclusion to draw is: PCs have been replaced by mobile phones, RPGs have been replaced by shooters, and old games have been replaced by new games. The reality is closer to: entry points have migrated, revenue tiers have increased, and what users pay for has become more complex.

PC hasn’t disappeared. In 2017, mobile growth came alongside the migration of PC users, but titles like League of Legends and Dungeon & Fighter continued to support PC revenue; in 2022, Tencent’s PC client game revenue still grew, and in 2025, the industry’s PC client game revenue also rebounded. RPG hasn’t disappeared either—it has simply shifted from dominating the top 100 by revenue to competing alongside tactical competition, shooter, and strategy genres for long-term users.

The next time you look at a gaming earnings report, you can walk through it with three questions: What axis of classification is this? What platforms, regions, and accounting attributions do the numbers cover? What is the payment trigger behind it—is it time, competition, identity, collection, or low-friction in-app purchases and ads? Only by answering these three questions first will you avoid being misled by a ranking on a single list or a pretty growth percentage into thinking “the players have switched generations.”

References

写作附记

Original Prompt

$blog-writer analyzes Tencent’s financial reports and the publicly available Apple game revenue rankings. Tencent is a large gaming company in China with a long service history. Based on Tencent’s financial data, this analyzes the revenue of various game types over the years, as well as the changes in game types and the shifts in user payment profiles within the gaming industry.

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