Huya Inc. (NYSE: HUYA), a leading game live streaming platform with increased presence in game-related services, announced its 2025Q1 financial results on May 13. The total net revenues stabilized year-on-year and increased quarter-on-quarter, reaching 1,508.6 million yuan ($207.9 million) for the quarter, exceeding market expectations. The company also reported a non-GAAP net income of 24.0 million yuan, marking its fifth consecutive profitable quarter. The Huya stock closed up 1.91% on Tuesday, with S&P 500 index climbing 0.72% to close at 5886.55.
For 2025Q1, Huya further solidified its leading position in the game live streaming industry by achieving positive progress across a series of business segments, from strengthened live streaming content ecosystem, deepened collaborations with game companies and content platforms, effective execution of strategic business transformation, to overseas business advancement and smooth implementation of “AI + Live Streaming” strategy in product upgrades. Huang Junhong, Acting Co-Chief Executive Officer and Senior Vice President of Huya, believed “Huya’s first quarter progress across various business areas has laid a solid foundation for development throughout the year.”
Following the stabilization of total net revenues of 2025Q1, as well as the continued improvement of diversified business growth and operational capabilities, Huya management expected that the total net revenues for 2025 will increase, and that the non-GAAP operating profit will improve as well.
It is encouraging that Huya’s strategic transformation has seen fruitful results. Revenues from game-related services, advertising, and others increased by 52.1% year-on-year to 370.4 million yuan, accounting for 24.6% of total net revenues, up from 16.2% in the same period last year.
In terms of game distribution, despite fewer major game launches this quarter, Huya strengthened partnerships with existing game studios and optimized operations, in an aim to unlock the consumption potential of high commercial value user groups that are deeply rooted within Huya game live streaming ecosystem, achieving a solid and more balanced game distribution performance. According to Huya management at the earnings conference call on Tuesday evening, total gross receipts generated through Huya’s game distribution channel in 2025Q1 more than doubled year-on-year, with sequential growth. While continuing expanding its role as a game distribution and promotion channel, Huya plans to deepen its exploration of distribution services, such as the exclusive distribution model, to advance business progress.
For in-game item sales, Huya has enriched its in-game item SKU offerings and enhanced its platform’s sales channels and purchasing experience, reaching a record GMV for in-game item sales in 2025Q1. The increased in-game items sales also benefit the broadcaster ecosystem, helping broadcasters gain more income from in-game item sales. Additionally, apart from Huya Live platform’s live channels and the “Mall” section, the “Community” section has attracted hardcore gamers, which is expected to be of great potential to expand customer base for in-game item purchases and improve repeat purchase rates.
It’s also worth noting that, according to Huang Junhong, “revenues from game distribution and in-game item sales are primarily recognized on a net basis after revenue sharing with game companies – as such, the total transaction value of our game-related services, mainly comprised of the gross receipts generated through our game distribution channel and the GMV for our in-game item sales, is actually much higher than our reported revenue.”
For the first of this year, Huya has made some fresh movements in its overseas business. The company is actively enhancing its game-related commercialization capabilities in overseas markets through its global mobile application service platform, to further explore the commercial value of its content and user traffic. At the same time, the company is developing diversified revenue models for overseas markets, including game distribution, in-game item sales, regional exclusive partnerships, and game advertising services.
Furthermore, Huya Inc. has established strategic collaborations with both Chinese game developers going global and local firms from foreign markets. As of 2025Q1, Huya Inc. partnered with multiple game companies to distribute or sell in-game items for about 50 games, among other operational efforts.
Huang Junhong believed “these initiatives are demonstrating promising growth, with overseas game-related services delivering multi-fold sequential revenue growth in the first quarter.” He also expressed confidence that given current development and market trends, “we are confident that they will continue to help expand our overseas user base and scale up our business. We believe overseas game-related commercialization initiatives hold significant potential, making them a key growth engine for our company going forward.”
Apart from overseas business progress, Huya continues to maintain a strong focus on the domestic market by implementing the “AI + Live streaming” strategy to offer new viewing and interactive experience, and enriching content portfolios on Huya Live.
On the “AI + Live Streaming” strategy side, Huya is exploring the integration of AI capabilities into e-sports experiences. At its flagship Huya Legend of Legends Legend Cup Season 3 (“Legend Cup S3”), Huya leveraged end-to-end AI solutions to transform the viewing experience and introduced “Hu Xiao Ai,” a leading all-scenario AI agent for e-sports watching, as a smart viewing companion for platform users.
“Hu Xiao Ai” can offer a variety of functions. It can understand the game, grasp e-sports dynamics, and provide live commentary throughout tournaments, while engaging users with a viewing companion that can be both tactical and entertaining. Statistics have shown that, as of early May, more than 300,000 bullet chats were generated during the Legend Cup S3, with approximately 17% of them related to interactive discussions initiated by “Hu Xiao Ai”. It can be regarded as a substantial leap in the viewing experience, during which fans can actively engage with the content in a more immersive and interactive manner. Huya management believed that “by applying AI models throughout the entire cycle of live streaming content production, distribution, and consumption, the company aims to create long-term value for Huya in live streaming, e-sports and other areas.”
In addition, Huya continues to enrich the content portfolios on the platform. On the professional content front, Huya has kept on solidifying its leading position in licensed e-sports tournaments in the first quarter, and has broadcasted approximately 75 events, with internal data indicating Huya’s market share in e-sports broadcasting continuing to improve, reinforcing the company’s position as the top game live streaming platform to watch e-sports tournaments.
On self-produced content, Huya has spared no efforts to innovate diverse in-house produced content, and broadcasted about 25 self-organized e-sports tournaments and entertainment PGC shows for 2025Q1, including the highly anticipated Legend Cup S3, among others.
These combined efforts across different business segments of Huya, as well as the overall positive financial results, have demonstrated that Huya has the determination and capability to move forward its strategic transformation, and further explore the domestic and overseas markets.