(Yicai) Oct. 31 -- Leading Chinese game makers Century Huatong Group, Perfect World Games, and Yoozoo Games reported soaring third-quarter earnings despite overall challenges in the global gaming industry.

Century Huatong, the largest Chinese game developer by market capitalization, saw its net profit surge 164 percent to CNY1.7 billion (USD240 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30 from a year earlier, while its revenue rose 60 percent to CNY10 billion (USD1.4 billion) for the first time, according to its financial report.

Perfect World's net profit soared 177 percent to CNY160 million (USD22.5 million) on revenue climbing 32 percent to CNY1.7 billion, it said in its earnings report. Yoozoo said its profit skyrocketed nearly 45 times to CNY26.2 million (USD3.7 million), while its income rose 12 percent to CNY330 million.

The gaming industry is facing a drop in performance, with sales in China falling 4 percent to CNY88 billion (USD12.4 billion), according to research institute Gamma Data. Chinese games' revenue from overseas markets dropped 3 percent to USD5 billion, mainly because of less market enthusiasm for some games compared to a year ago.

Century Huatong's impressive performance was mainly due to the success of two of its games overseas. Whiteout Survival ranked first among domestic mobile games by overseas revenue for 15 straight months in September, with its global income exceeding USD3.5 billion, while Kingshot, which launched in February, secured the second spot on the chart last month, generating more than USD400 million worldwide since its release, according to data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

The improvement in the third-quarter earnings of Perfect World and Yoozoo was mainly thanks to a low base a year ago and new games performing well. Perfect World fell into the red last year with a new loss of CNY1.3 billion after its revenue plunged 58 percent from a year earlier due to business transformation, while Yoozoo, which is a relatively smaller firm, managed to recover after posting a loss of CNY390 million in 2024.

For the first nine months of this year, Century Huatong's net profit jumped 142 percent to CNY4.4 billion from a year earlier, while its income rose 75 percent to CNY27.2 billion. In addition, Perfect World reported a profit of CNY670 million, while its revenue jumped 33 percent to CNY5.4 billion from a year ago, almost matching its total for last year.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev