Huya Turns To Game Monetization To Drive Growth Beyond Streaming

The company is starting to monetize its gaming ecosystem through game publishing, selling in-game items and providing other related services image credit: Bamboo Works Key Takeaways: Huya's latest results show its long-promised shift beyond livestreaming is starting to show up in its financials For investors, the real bet is not on one breakout title, but on whether Huya can repeatedly monetize games using its streamers, tournaments, publisher ties and content ecosystem After three years of falling revenue, livestream gaming leader Huya Inc. (NYSE:HUYA) may finally have found a new growth formula in China's constantly evolving game landscape. The company's latest quarterly results suggest it may have found a better way to grow, not by reviving its old livestreaming playbook, but by making more money around games themselves. Its fourth-quarter revenue rose 16.2% to 1.74 billion yuan ($252 million), the highest level in 10 quarters. That brought Huya's total revenue for 2025 to 6.5 billion yuan, up 7% from 2024 – marking its first annual revenue growth since 2021. The momentum came despite just a 1.9% rise for the company's livestreaming revenue in the fourth quarter. Instead, Huya's big growth driver for the quarter was game-related services, advertising and other revenue, which jumped 59.4% to 592.5 million yuan. Its gross profit rose 43.6%, lifting its gross margin to 14.1% from 11.4% a year earlier. The takeaway isn't that livestreaming is back, but rather that Huya's newer businesses are finally large enough to become a major revenue contributor. That matters because the market has changed for specialist game-streaming platforms like Huya. China's e-sports industry still generated 29.33 billion yuan in revenue in 2025 and had more than 495 million users, showing the market remains large. But Huya is no longer competing only with longtime rival DouYu (DOYU.US) and other livestream gaming specialists. Short-video giants such as Douyin and Kuaishou (1024.HK) are also pushing deeper into livestreaming, leveraging their much larger user bases, stronger recommendation engines, and broader monetization tools. Douyin, in particular, has lured top gaming creators and e-sports talent away from traditional platforms. On the company's earnings call, acting co-CEO Huang Junhong said Huya is "no longer just a game livestreaming platform," and has evolved into a "content-driven integrated game services provider." For Huya, the shift is reflected in titles like "Goose Goose Duck Mobile," the Chinese version of a social-deduction game originally developed by Gaggle Studios, which was previously popularized in China via Steam. Huya obtained rights to the mobile version of the game and launched its version in January. "Goose Goose Duck's" history also explains why the momentum for Huya's newfound growth is less certain than the headline numbers suggest. Huya didn't create the original "Goose Goose Duck" craze, and such viral party games can cool quickly. What Huya is trying to prove is that it can localize, market, and monetize such titles more effectively than it did in the past. Huang said the game attracted more than 5 million new users in its first 24 hours and surpassed 10 million within six days. Monetization, however, is intentionally limited for now, with management expecting stronger revenue only after later content updates. That makes "Goose Goose Duck" more important as a potential future source of game-related sales under Huya's new business model rather than as a standalone hit. Emerging alternative model The latest quarter caps a year when an alternative model has become clearly visible. Huya is no longer just trying to turn viewers into tippers. It's trying to use streamers, tournaments, short-video reach, and community distribution to help game companies market and monetize titles, then capture more of that value itself. That's a stronger story than simply "livestreaming stabilized," and it's a story investors can map more easily. The more interesting question is whether Huya is building something broader than one or two successful launches. Management said in-game item sales grew by more than 200% year-over- year in the fourth quarter, and highlighted exclusive presale rights for an "Honor of Kings" FMVP skin, describing game publishing as the company's most important growth driver. Company officials also pointed to the Demacia Cup, which Huya hosted in December in what they described as the first time the official League of Legends organizer had handed the event to a third-party livestreaming platform. Taken together, those examples suggest Huya's publisher relationships, content operations and event capabilities are beginning to translate into revenue beyond simply putting viewers in front of streamers. Huya is also trying to build supporting growth legs around that ecosystem. On the earnings call, Huang said AI-powered channels were gaining traction, while the company was expanding AI tools such as the Delta Force Map Tool and experimenting with ways to apply AI features to titles including "Goose Goose Duck." He also said Huya's overseas efforts were showing some traction, with steady growth in overseas advertising and in-game item sales and more emphasis on scaling overseas publishing opportunities. None of that is large enough to convince investors to give the company a second look just yet. Huya's stock jumped nearly 10% the day it released its latest report last week, suggesting its transformation was capturing investor attention, though it later gave back all the gains. The stock is down about 4% over the last 52 weeks, missing the broader rally for Chinese stocks over that time, showing investors are still waiting to see if the recent return to revenue growth can be sustained. Huya is doing its best to create excitement about the potential of "Goose Goose Duck." Huang said the game has major content updates planned for later this year, that management expects another jump in daily active users in the summer, and that Huya plans to launch a WeChat mini-game version and a UGC editor to extend the game's life cycle. The next few quarters will be pivotal, showing whether Huya can repeat the "Goose Goose Duck" formula with other titles and make publishing a durable part of its revenue mix. Regulation was not a major topic on Huya's earnings call, but it remains an ongoing risk. Investor concern in that regard eased after late-2023 draft measures aimed at curbing in-game spending incentives and reward mechanics were later removed from the regulator's website. Still, the reality is that gaming and livestreaming remain closely supervised. Huya's progress also looks notable beside rival DouYu, whose latest disclosures still show a company struggling to stabilize a shrinking livestreaming business, even as it leans on cost cuts and side businesses to steady its ship. That contrast helps explain why Huya's quarter matters. It isn't proof that its turnaround is complete. But at least it shows investors what the next version of Huya might look like. That's a better story, though it will still require more time to show it's sustainable. To subscribe to Bamboo Works weekly free newsletter, click here Benzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.