Tencent Smashes Q3 Revenue Forecasts: Gaming & AI Powerhouse Defies Market Slump

Tencent just schooled Wall Street—again. The Chinese tech giant's Q3 earnings blew past analyst estimates, fueled by relentless gaming demand and its quietly formidable AI services division.

Gaming division flexes its muscles

While rivals flounder in the mobile gaming slump, Tencent's titles keep printing money. No surprise—when your IP catalog includes League of Legends and Honor of Kings, players open their wallets on autopilot.

AI services: The dark horse

Forget the ChatGPT hype—Tencent's enterprise AI tools are quietly monetizing faster than most Silicon Valley darlings. Cloud revenue? Up. Ad tech? Surging. Another quarter proving AI's real money isn't in chatbots—it's in boring, bulletproof B2B solutions.

Closing shot: Tencent's 'boring' earnings beat is a masterclass in how real tech giants operate—while crypto bros were busy chasing the next meme coin, they were stacking billions the old-fashioned way: by actually delivering products people pay for.

TLDR

• Tencent reported 15% revenue growth in Q3 2025, reaching 192.9 billion yuan ($27.08 billion), beating analyst estimates of 188.9 billion yuan.
• Gaming revenue increased 15% domestically to 42.8 billion yuan and 43% internationally to 20.8 billion yuan, driven by titles like “Honor of Kings” and “Delta Force”.
• Net profit rose 19% to 63.1 billion yuan, surpassing the analyst estimate of 55.9 billion yuan.
• AI investments boosted advertising revenue by 21% to 36.2 billion yuan through improved targeting capabilities.
• Tencent’s AI chatbot Yuanbao reached 32 million monthly active users in September, ranking third among AI apps in China.

Tencent posted third-quarter revenue of 192.9 billion yuan on Thursday. The figure topped analyst expectations of 188.9 billion yuan.

TENCENT QTRLY REVENUES RMB192,869 MLN +15% Y/Y, VS PREV. 167,193 MLN.
STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS IN AI ARE BENEFITTING US IN BUSINESS AREAS SUCH AS AD TARGETING AND GAME ENGAGEMENT.#TENCENT $TCEHY #CHINA #AI#CHINA $SHCOMP $SSEC $ASHR $HSI $KWEB $FXI $HXC $DRAG $YINN $YANG… pic.twitter.com/RJ4DKbcXMK

— CN Wire (@Sino_Market) November 13, 2025

The Chinese tech giant reported net profit of 63.1 billion yuan for the September quarter. That beat the analyst estimate of 57.3 billion yuan by a healthy margin.

Gaming revenue showed strong performance across both markets. Domestic gaming revenue climbed 15% to 42.8 billion yuan. International gaming revenue jumped 43% to 20.8 billion yuan.

Popular titles drove the domestic growth. “Honor of Kings” and “Peacekeeper Elite” continued their strong runs. New release “Delta Force” also contributed to the gains.

Supercell’s games powered the international revenue increase. New releases in foreign markets added to the growth.

Advertising revenue ROSE 21% to 36.2 billion yuan. AI-powered ad targeting improved results for marketers.

CEO Pony Ma Huateng credited AI investments for the performance. “Our strategic investments in AI are benefiting us in business areas such as ad targeting and game engagement,” Ma said in Thursday’s statement.

AI Push Shows Results

Tencent’s AI efforts are paying off across multiple fronts. The company reported a 20% boost in research and development efficiency from AI automation. Ninety percent of its engineers now use the CodeBuddy IDE programming tool.

The firm launched Hunyuan Image 3.0 in September. The text-to-image generator topped Google DeepMind’s Nano Banana on a major public leaderboard last month.

Tencent’s Yuanbao chatbot reached 32 million monthly active users in September. The app ranks third in China behind ByteDance’s Doubao and DeepSeek’s app.

WeChat integrated AI from startup DeepSeek this year. The super app reached 1.41 billion combined monthly active users for Weixin and WeChat at the end of September.

Business Performance Across Segments

Value-added services revenue grew 16% to 95.9 billion yuan. This segment includes video gaming and social media businesses.

Fintech and business services increased 10% to 58.2 billion yuan. Higher demand for AI-related services from enterprise clients drove the growth. WeChat’s Mini Shop e-commerce business also contributed through increased service fees.

Third-quarter capital expenditure totaled 13 billion yuan. That compares to 19.1 billion yuan in the previous quarter. The company expects AI-focused capital expenditure to reach the low teens as a percentage of revenue in 2025.

Tencent stockpiled AI chips to protect against U.S. trade restrictions. The company says alternative chips are available domestically if needed.

The firm open-sourced more than 30 new AI models this year. These include several industry-leading 3D generation models.

Tencent’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell 0.15% to HK$656 on Thursday ahead of the results announcement.