Game developer TiMi Studios, which belongs to Chinese Internet giant Tencent and is responsible for mobile gaming hits CallofDuty : Mobile and Honor of Kings, among others, has been able to generate an impressive $10 billion in revenue in 2020. This was recently reported by the news service Reuters.

Even though other game and studio names usually dominate the headlines of the gaming industry and are thus present in the minds of gamers, TiMi is currently the “largest” developer worldwide, according to Reuters’ sources. It is unclear exactly what criteria were used to establish this definition, but the billion-dollar turnover alone speaks for itself. For a better classification: The well-known game publishing giant Activision Blizzard, which is responsible for the Call of Duty series on PC and consoles, among other things, was able to generate revenues of just under 8.1 billion dollars last year, which is almost 2 billion dollars less than the revenue attributed to TiMi.

That mobile games as a whole, and TiMi’s titles in particular, are highly successful is obvious to industry insiders, but still receives little attention in conventional reporting. When Call of Duty: Mobile was released in October 2019, it quickly became the biggest game launch for mobile platforms. In just its first week of availability, it was reportedly downloaded over 100 million times worldwide. The MOBA Honor of Kings, also from TiMi and so far only available in China, even has around 100 million daily active users, according to Tencent’s data.

Strong growth likely in the future as well

From the looks of it, neither Tencent nor TiMi will be satisfied with their previous successes. According to available information, the developer studio has started recruiting staff for a new AAA game, which could be inspired by Epic Games’ hit game Fortnite. In addition, Tencent is currently planning to establish an offshoot of TiMi in Los Angeles, USA.

Tencent is now involved both in China and internationally, either directly with developer studios or through hefty investments in various of the biggest game brands. For example, the Chinese have owned Riot Games, the studio behind the PC MOBA League of Legends, the developer of PUBG: Mobile, Lightspeed & Quantum, since 2015, and a 40 percent stake in Epic Games since 2012.