Riot Games owner Tencent posts $21.9 billion in revenue for 2016

Tencent, the Chinese tech behemoth, and owner of League of Legends developer, Riot Games, has reported it made $21.9 billion in revenue for 2016.

Diving deeper into thefinancial report for the year 2016, which was released today, Tencent report that “online games revenues grew by 16% YoY [year on year]” to reach just under $2.7 million.

The company also divulged that their online games business delivered another year of growth. “We broadened user engagement with our major PC game titles via eSports, game video streaming, and game interest groups,” says the report.

League of Legends is mentioned specifically later in the report when discussing the company’s online games platforms: “We maintained our leadership as the largest game operator and publishing platform in China, operating all three top PC client games in China, namely League of Legends, Dungeon & Fighter and Cross Fire. In particular, League of Legends ranked first globally among all PC client games in terms of revenue in 2016, according to SuperData.”

Tencent is best known in China for its social media and messaging services. In 2011, Riot Games partnered with Tencent to bring League of Legends to China. The tech giant quickly acquired a majority stake in Riot Games and then, in 2015, it purchased the remaining equity in the League of Legends developer.

In a statement about their outlook for 2017, the company has declared an interest in developing its presence in the gaming space further by “expanding the popularity of our major smart phone games while adding new genre-driven PC games”.