Introduction: An underrated “gun battle revolution”
Author┃Wang Pei
Editor┃Li Nan
Yesterday, Tencent Holdings released its second quarter 2025 financial report, two keywords were mentioned: AI andgame. The former is investment in the future and imagination space, while the game is a real growth in performance.Sutu.comIn the financial report, he repeatedly mentioned the new game “Action Delta》, as well as “Honor of Kings”, “Fearless Contract” and “Peace Elite》 and other eternal games have increased revenue.
Among them, the average daily active users of “Operation Delta” exceeded 20 million in July,industryThe top five daily active users and the top three. In the last quarter, Peace Elite user duration increased by 16% year-on-year, and Operation Delta Daily Active Users (DAU) exceeded 12 million at the time.
It is worth noting thatThe FPS (first-person shooting) category contributes 45% of Tencent’s domestic game revenue. Behind this set of numbers is an industrial fact that has been ignored for a long time – the most successful global category in China’s game industry is neither MOBA (multi-player online tactical competition) nor a two-dimensional world, but it was once widely believed by the industry to “not adapt to the local environment”FPS Games。
Since the 2007th period, Tencent has completed an industrial counterattack in 2004: it not only builds FPS into the fastest growing track in the Chinese game market, but also builds the world’s largest shooting game ecosystem covering 200 million users through self-developed products such as “Peace Elite” and “Operation Delta”. This quiet “gun battle revolution” is reshaping the power landscape of the global gaming industry.
According to Newzoo’s 2025 Global Game Market Report, Tencent has accounted for 37% of the global FPS gaming market, surpassing Activision Blizzard (22%) and EA (18%). In this article, Sutu.com will show you the way Tencent FPS games came, why Tencent can achieve an “unshake” position in this track, what exactly did they do, and what actions were available to other game manufacturers to learn from. This article is not published, so you can watch it with confidence.
From agent to self-development: Analysis of Tencent FPS’s seventeen-year development history
On July 10, 2007, Tencent signed an agency agreement with South Korea’s Smile Gate Company to obtain the exclusive operation rights of CrossFire in mainland China. This decision became the starting point of Tencent’s FPS business. At that time, the Chinese online game market was dominated by MMORPGs (large-scale multiplayer online role-playing games) such as “Legend” and “World of Warcraft”. The FPS category was regarded as a “niche track” due to its high operating threshold and unclear payment mode. But Tencent keenly sees the gap in young users’ demand for “fast-paced confrontation” and launches a targeted marketeducate。
Unlike the hardcore gameplay of “Counter-Strike” (CS) at that time, Tencent positioned “Cross Fire” as a “lightweight competitive game”: the client volume is controlled within 500MB (only 1/5 of the CS of the same period), and the minimum configuration requirement is reduced to Intel Pentium 4 processor + integrated graphics card. This optimization allows it to run smoothly on computers commonly configured in Chinese Internet cafes in 2008. The game initially includes three core gameplays: explosion mode (C4 bomb attack and defense), team competition (limited killing), and ghost mode (stealth and anti-stealth confrontation). It lowers the threshold for novices through simple and easy-to-understand rules, while retaining the exciting designs such as “headshot” and “sequential killing”.
In May 2008, Tencent customized the WCG (World E-sports Competition) exclusive competition map “Black Town” for “Cross Fire” and promoted it to become a formal competition event for WCG. In July of the same year, in the WCG China Finals held in Shanghai, the “Cross Fire” project attracted 200,000 viewers to watch online. The precise sniping operation of professional players “70kg” (Lang Shuai) spread throughout the country through the live broadcast platform, making Chinese players realize for the first time that “playing games can become a profession.” What is more strategic is the “Hundred Cities League” launched in October – a grassroots event system covering 300 cities across the country. With the slogan “There are competitions every week, the championship every month, and everyone has prizes”, it has moved e-sports from first-tier cities to Internet cafes in third- and fourth-tier cities. In 2009 alone, 12,000 games were held, attracting more than 5 million players to participate.Directly promote Crossfire to achieve a simultaneous online number of people exceeding one million in April 2009becoming the first FPS online game in China to reach this level.
As of 2011, CrossFire’s cumulative registered users exceeded 300 million, with the highest simultaneous online reaching 3 million, with an annual revenue stable at more than 5 billion yuan, accounting for 75% of the Chinese FPS market. This product not only brings huge profits to Tencent, but also accumulates valuable user insights: Chinese players prefer a combination of “light competition + social interaction” and have a high acceptance of “fair payment” (appearance props that do not affect the core value). These experiences have pointed out the direction for subsequent self-developed products.
Self-research exploration stage:technologyAccumulated leap into category breakthroughs
While “Cross Fire” continues to make profits, Tencent has realized the risks of “agent dependence” – in 2010, South KoreaDevelopmentSmile Gate disagrees with Tencent due to the issue of share ratio and once threatened to terminate the cooperation. This incident accelerated Tencent’s strategic layout of self-developed FPS. On April 28, 2011, Tencent’s first self-developed FPS work”T-Game“The launch of the first closed test marks the transformation from “agent operation” to “independent research and development”.
This product, developed by Tencent Linlang Tianshang Studio (later incorporated into Tianmei Studio Group) for three years, uses the most advanced one at that timeUnreal 3 enginefor the first time, try to integrate the MMORPG growth system into FPS: players can improve their character abilities by completing tasks such as “weapon specialization” and “tactical medal”, and at the same time launch the PVE “mech warfare” mode (players control giant mechas to fight AI), breaking through the gameplay boundaries of traditional FPS pure PVP.
Test data shows that the retention rate of its core users is 65%, but technical problems such as screen stuttering and operation delays have resulted in only 42% retention the next day. Tencent immediately launched the “Technical Development Plan” and organized a 30-person optimization team to provide special adaptations for mid- and low-end graphics cards (such as NVIDIA GeForce 9400GT), which ultimately stabilized the game’s frame rate at least 30FPS with the lowest configuration. In July 2012, after 15 version iterations, “T-Game” was officially named “Reverse War” public beta, with more than 20 million registered users in the first month, verifying the technical capabilities of the self-developed team.
In October 2014, Tencent Interactive Entertainment Group made structural adjustments and was established based on studios such as Linlang Tianshang and Wolong.Tianmei Studio GroupAmong them, the original Linlang Tianshang core team was formed as J3 Studio, specializing in the FPS category. This adjustment has achieved the concentration of technical resources – J3 Studio has inherited the engine optimization experience of “Reverse War”, the social system development capabilities of “QQ Speed”, and the art style control of “Gun God” (another self-developed TPS game), forming a trinity-in-one R&D system of “Technique + Gameplay + Art”.
It is worth noting that Tencent has begun this stageForesighted exploration of mobile layout. In 2013, J3 Studio secretly launched”cell phoneResearch on the “end shooting operation plan”, developed a “dual rocker + auxiliary aiming” control system for touch screen characteristics, and embedded the “mobile game operation simulation” module in the “Cross Fire” PC game to collect user data. After more than 200 iterations, the operation paradigm of “left virtual rocker controls movement, right swipe controls aiming, click-screen shooting”, which later became the industry standard for global mobile FPS.
Mobile terminal explosion stage: dual-end collaborative construction of global usersEcology
2015 became the “first year” of Tencent FPS mobile games. With the popularization of 4G networks and the improvement of smartphone performance, the mobile game market size has increased by 87% year-on-year. Tencent seized this opportunity and launched the dual-track strategy of “mobile PC IP + self-developed new product innovation” to quickly occupy the market.
“Cross Fire: Gunfighting King” (CF mobile game) The first shot was fired. In September 2015, Tianmei J3 Studio launched its first test of CF mobile game developed based on the IP of the PC game, attracting core users through “PC game data interoperability” (players can synchronize the PC game level and some props to the mobile game), and at the same time, innovate light gameplay such as “plot level” and “tiaotiaole” to expand wide users. In the first month of online launch, the game’s DAU exceeded 20 million, ranking on iOS free list.Successfully popularized “dual rocker operation” as the standard configuration of mobile FPS。
More importantly, CF mobile games have verified the feasibility of “mobile mobile terminal monetization of IP on the PC” – its “hero-level weapon” (paid props with unique appearance and slightly increased attributes) have exceeded 200 million yuan in a single month, and the annual turnover reached 5.8 billion yuan in 2016, becoming the third place in Tencent’s mobile game revenue.
The “tactical competitive boom” in 2018 pushed Tencent FPS mobile games to the peak of globalization. In February of that year, the self-developed “PUBG Mobile” (international version of PUBG Mobile) of Photon Studio Group started testing. This mobile game developed based on Unreal 4 engine completed the mobile restore of the core experience of the PC game in just 4 months: 100-person airborne, 8×8 kilometers map, physics engine-driven ballistic simulation, and HDR real-time lighting technology. In order to cover a wide range of equipment, the team adopted the “high-end machine priority adaptation and low-end machine gradual optimization” strategy – to achieve 60FPS+HDR image quality on iPhone X, and to ensure smooth operation of 30FPS by reducing the mapping accuracy and simplifying the light and shadow effect.
In March 2018, PUBG Mobile was launched simultaneously in 105 countries and regions around the world, with downloads exceeding 100 million times in the first week, winning the free iPhone list in 78 countries. Overseas media IGN gave an 8.7 rating, saying that it “has achieved a host-level tactical competitive experience on mobile devices.” In order to strengthen user stickiness, Tencent launched the “Royale Pass” (Season Pass) system, guiding users to continue to be active through weekly tasks. In May of the same year, it launched the Tencent Gaming Buddy simulator, supporting the running of mobile games on the PC side, forming a “mobile phone + PC” dual-end collaborative ecosystem. By the end of 2019, the global download volume of PUBG Mobile exceeded 600 million times, with daily active users reaching 50 million, and annual revenue of US$1.5 billion, of which the overseas market accounted for 45%, becoming a benchmark product for China’s game globalization.
In October 2019, Call of Duty: Mobile, jointly developed by Tianmei J3 Studio and Activision Blizzard, was released globally. This mobile game that combines classic maps of the Call of Duty series (such as “Nuclear Bomb Town” and “Cross Firepower”) and characters (Captain Price, soap), has been downloaded more than 100 million times in the first month of launch, and won the “Best Mobile Game of the Year” of TGA the following year. As of November 2024, the global download volume exceeded 1 billion times, becoming Tencent’s main product in the European and American markets.
Globalization and multi-terminal layout stage: self-developed IP and technology leadership
After 2019, Tencent’s FPS business entered a new stage of “from product output to standard formulation”. Through self-developed IP breakthroughs, deep cultivation of Unreal Engine technology, and improvement of the global issuance system, a multi-terminal collaborative ecological empire has been built.
Strategic upgrade of self-developed IPIt is reflected in the transformation from “cooperative development” to “independent operation”. In December 2024, Operation Delta, developed by Tianmei Linlang Tianshang Team (formerly the core member of J3 Studio) for 4 years, started overseas testing. This product adapted from the IP of “Delta Special Forces” realizes Tencent’s “independent operation” of international classic IP for the first time. The development team not only retains the original “realistic military tactics” core, but also integrates the plot elements of the “Black Hawk Down” movie, designs dual modes of “Beacon Zone” (search-fight-evacuation) and “full battlefield” (mass-cross-zone confrontation), and builds a “dynamic battlefield” system through Unreal 5 engine (weather changes affect visibility, explosion damages terrain).
Test data shows that its Steam peak online at the same time exceeded 100,000, ranking among the top 6 on the platform’s popular playlists. Overseas media PCGamesN commented that it “redefined the screen standards of tactical shooting games.”
In the view of Sutu.com, exceptIn-depth application of Unreal Engine technologyTo become the core of product competitiveness, more importantly, the team has created a “cross-platform art pipeline” to enable the PC and mobile terminal to share 80% of the art resources. At the same time, through the “performance scalability” design, ray tracing is realized on the iPhone 15, and on the mid-range models, the frame rate is guaranteed through “hierarchical rendering”. This “one source and multiple end” development model has enabled Operation Delta to be launched globally in April 2025.More than 25 million pre-registered users, topped the free Apple App Store list in 167 countries/regionsPC revenue accounts for 60%, verifying the commercial value of cross-end strategies.
The “VALORANT” introduced into the national server in 2023 has become a phenomenal case. This 5V5 turn-based FPS developed by Riot Games and represented by Tencent has reached 28 million monthly active users worldwide, ranking first in the Twitch platform FPS viewing list. Tencent has tailored the “four major tracks” e-sports system for the national server: professional league (VCT CN), university league (covering 300 universities), Internet cafe competition (cooperating with Netyu Internet cafe), platform competition (Tik Tok and Bilibili custom events), with a total prize pool of more than 20 million yuan.
In Q3 2024, the average number of daily active accounts of the national server in “Fearless Contract” hit a record high, surpassing “League of Legends” to become the Tencent PC game revenue champion.
By 2025, Tencent has built an FPS product matrix covering all categories and multiple platforms: the tactical and technological fields include “Peace Elite” and “PUBG Mobile”, the 5V5 confrontation fields include “Defensible Contract” and “Cross Fire”, and the hardcore simulation fields include “Operation Delta” and “Dark Zone Breakthrough”, formingThe ecological closed loop of “Old IPs continue to produce hematopoiesis (the annual revenue of the CF series still exceeds 8 billion), and the increase in new IP development (the first-year target of “Operation Delta” is 5 billion)”。
Analysis of core advantages: Four capabilities build barriers to global competition
Tencent FPS’s technical advantages come from the full-chain layout of “bottom engine breakthrough-cross-end collaboration-content production innovation”. In the field of engine technology, Tencent has formed in-depth control of the Unreal series engines. The “Delta Action” team has developed a “dual-end high-quality integrated production pipeline” for Unreal 5, and has achieved synchronous iteration of PC/mobile art resources through an automated tool chain, increasing the efficiency of scene production by 40%; “Counter-War·Future” uses the “Big World Streaming Loading” technology of Unreal 4 engine to achieve seamless connection of a 64-square-kilometer map, and shortened the loading time to less than 3 seconds.
Tencent’s self-developed “cross-platform matching system” can intelligently divide the matching pool according to device performance (PC/mobile/host) to ensure competitive fairness – “Delta Action” PC players only match the PC side, while the mobile side is subdivided according to the processor model (Snapdragon 8 Gen3 or above is a high-end pool, and the following is a mid-end pool).
The “Light Travel DreamWorkshop” codeless editor supported by Tencent Hunyuan’s big model allows level designers to build logic (such as AI enemy patrol paths) without programming, and the development efficiency is increased by 50%; the “GiiNEX game AI engine” can generate 2D images and 3D scenes based on text descriptions. The “Abandoned Factory” scene of “Dark Zone Breakout” is generated through this engine, and the production cycle is compressed from the traditional 3 months to 45 days. On the gaming experience side, AI also plays a key role: the AI teammates of “Dark Zone Breakthrough” can recognize 4,000 objects and execute compound tactical instructions (such as “occupying the high point” and “flanking encirclement”), and their behavior pattern is trained through 100,000 game data of professional players, with anthropomorphism reaching 85%.
IP operation: a dual-track strategy for long-term deepening of classic IP and new IP incubation
Tencent FPS’s IP operation presents a strategic pattern of “classic IP long-term renewal + new IP differentiated breakthrough”. In terms of classic IP operation, since “Cross Fire” was launched in 2008, Tencent has continued to iterate through the rhythm of “one major update in three years, one small update in half a year”: in 2013, the “biological frenzy” mode (zombie confrontation), with a DAU increase of 30%; in 2018, the “tactical offense and defense” gameplay (similar to “Rainbow Six: Siege”), attracting hardcore players to return; in 2024, the “code name: CF0″ plan is launched, and the screen is upgraded to Unreal 4 engine and developed simultaneously”original universeSocial Hall”. This strategy makes CrossfireThe cumulative registered users exceeded 600 million, and the 2023 anniversary event hit a peak of 4.179 million simultaneous onlinethe life cycle far exceeds the industry average (the average life cycle of China’s PC games is 5 years).
“Cross Fire” has built a full platform coverage of “unit game + mobile game + micro-end + console version”. During the 2024 ninth anniversary celebration of the mobile game “Cross Fire: Gunfighting King”, the “Internet Drama Linked Version” (simultaneously launched the plot level of the online drama “Cross Fire 2”), driving revenue to a record high. IP derivatives extend to film and television (3D animation “Cross Fire: Ghost Plan” has exceeded 1 billion views), literature (Qidian Chinese website’s novel of the same name), and trendy toys (blind boxes cooperating with Pop Mart), forming a commercial closed loop of “content-product-consumption”.
The new IP incubation adopts the “globalization testing + precise positioning” strategy. The development team of “Trigger of Destiny” has warmed up the Steam page (the wish list exceeded 200,000), and closed overseas tests (collecting 50,000 player feedback), and adjusted the gameplay from “traditional team competition” to “fast-paced mecha shooting”, and compressed the core loop to “one game in 3 minutes”, aiming at fragmented time users. This “user-participated development” model allows the product to accumulate core fans before it is launched and reduce market risks.
Market Insights: Data-driven refined operation system
Tencent FPS’s market success is inseparable from the accurate capture of user needs. Through the “user portrait system” (integrating game behavior, social data, and payment preferences), Tencent found that Chinese FPS users present three major characteristics:75% of young users aged 18-25(Preferring to fresh gameplay), cross-device usage habits (on average of 2.3 devices switched to each other per day), and obvious social drive (70% of paid behaviors are derived from friends’ recommendations). Based on these insights, the “Delta Operation” team has adjusted the focus of R&D from “mobile-first” to “PC/mobile-first” and strengthened “team voice social” (built-inWeChat/QQ voice interoperability) increases the teaming rate to 65%, and the user retention rate increases by 20 percentage points.
In terms of long-term content iteration, “Peace Elite” maintains the rhythm of “one small update per month and one big update per season”, and has firmly ranked among the top two best-selling list in the past five years; “Cross Fire-Gull Battle King” has increased the monthly active users from 12 days to 18 days through the “Royale Pass” system. Event operations are designed for users at different levels: professional events (such as CFS World Championship) attract core players, university competitions (such as “Defaultless Contract” College League) cultivate young users, and national competitions (such as “Delta Action” “National Breakthrough Competition”) lower the participation threshold and form a “pyramid” user conversion path.
Risk control capabilities are also critical. Tencent maintains the retention of users of “Dark Zone Breakthrough” through “Dynamic Activity Adjustment” – When the data shows that the DAU of “Dark Zone Breakthrough” has dropped by 5%, the team immediately launched “Old Player Return Package” (exclusive equipment) and “AI Teammate Experience Optimization” (enhanced tactical diversity), which quickly narrowed the churn rate to 2%. This “multi-product collaborative adjustment” mechanism ensures that Tencent’s overall share in the FPS market segment is stable.
Ecological collaboration: the integration capability of social chains and global resources
Tencent FPS’s ecological advantages are first reflected inDeep integration of social links. Relying on the two major platforms of WeChat and QQ, Tencent has built a closed loop of “game-social-content”: “Reverse War” supports QQ fast login, and players can invite friends to form a team with one click; “Fearless Contract” has a built-in “Region Sharing” function, which automatically generates highlights and short moments.video(such as “Five Kills Highlights”) and synchronize to the circle of friends; the “Game Circle” module of the Wegame platform enables “Cross Fire” players to publish strategies and team up information, with more than 80 million monthly active users. This social empowerment makes the user acquisition cost of Tencent FPS games only 1/3 of the industry average.
Externally, Tencent and leading manufacturers such as Activision Blizzard and Krafton have formed a “joint development + global distribution” model – “Call of Duty Mobile Game” is led by Tianmei J3 Studio, and Activision provides IP authorization and gameplay guidance, and both parties share global revenue sharing. Internally, the subsidiary Riot Games’ “Defying Contract”, Tianmei Studio’s “Operation Delta”, and Photon Studio’s “PUBG Mobile” form product complementarity to avoid internal competition. Tencent Cloud also provides underlying support: 3,200 acceleration nodes around the world ensure in-site voice delay <400ms, and the game security system ACE (a total of 110,000 plug-ins processed) maintains a fair competitive environment. These infrastructures keep the network lag rate of overseas users of "Operation Delta" below 3%.
Industry impact and future prospects: China’s FPS’s global voice battle
The rise of Tencent’s FPS business has not only reshapes the structure of China’s gaming industry, but also triggers a “transfer of power” worldwide. In the domestic market, Tencent has formed “all-round coverage” – according to third-party data, Tencent accounts for 8 of the top 10 Chinese FPS mobile games revenue in 2024, and the top 5 PC game games account for 4. The only space left for competitors is “hard core niche” (such as NetEase “Eternal Raid”) and “casual mild” (such as Mihayou “Zero”). This dominance has given Tencent the ability to set industry standards. Its designs such as “dual rocker operation”, “cross-end data interoperability”, and “season pass” have become the common paradigm of global mobile FPS.
In the international market, Tencent is upgrading from “product output” to “technical output”. The MotorNerve character animation system (combined with Motion Matching and AI learning) developed by Tianmei Studio Group has been authorized to Epic Games for Unreal Engine plug-in; after the codeless editor of “Light Travel DreamWorks” has been opened to the public, it has helped small and medium-sized teams to increase the level development efficiency by 30 times. This technological empowerment has transformed China’s FPS industry from “follower” to “leader”, in the global mobile FPS market in 2024,Products developed in China account for 58%up 35 percentage points from 2018.
In the future, Tencent FPS will focus on three major directions:AIGC content production(The goal is to achieve fully automatic scenario generation in 2026)Cross-platform competition(Operation Delta supports PC/host/mobile cross-platform online)Metaverse Social(In the “Metaverse Hall” test of “Cross Fire”, it supports virtual image customization and UGC content creation). With the continuous construction of technical barriers, Tencent is upgrading FPS from a “game category” to a “digital entertainment ecosystem”. This “gun battle revolution” that began in 2007 is still rewriting the future of the global game industry.
Conclusion: The Revelation of Counterattack from Agent to Self-Developed
Tencent FPS’s seventeen-year development history is a microcosm of China’s game industry’s “technology catch-up-product innovation-global leadership”. From the agency start of Crossfire to the self-developed breakthrough of Operation Delta, the core of its success lies in:Long-term deep cultivation of user needs(From satisfying operating habits to creating emotional connections),Strategic determination to invest in technology(Continuously betting on underlying technologies such as engines and AIGC),System capabilities of ecological collaboration(Efficient integration of social chains and global resources).
Today, with increasingly fierce competition in the global game industry, Tencent FPS’s experience proves that only by focusing on users, technology as the foundation, and ecology as the barrier can we stand firm in the “rain of bullets” market. This quiet revolution not only made Tencent’s business empire, but also gave China’s game industry the first voice to define rules in the global FPS field. (over)
