Physix Frontier · News Briefing Card (TMTPost · Oct 15, 2026)

Tencent Leads $25M Series A in Turkey's Circle Games

KEY FACTS

In September 2026, Tencent led a $25 million Series A funding round in Turkish game company Circle Games.
Circle Games was founded two years ago, and its title Sort Express generates over $1 million in monthly revenue.
In 2015, Tencent acquired a majority stake in Switzerland's Miniclip, whose studio count grew from 2 to 22.
In February 2026, Tencent planned to invest in Jiayou Network; in July it planned to acquire SuperPlay; and in August it invested in Happibits.
In Q2 2026, Tencent's IAA games contributed about 2 percentage points to marketing services growth, an increment of about 720 million yuan.

KEY DATA

$25 millionCircle Games Series A funding amount

$22.68 billion2026 global online casual game market size

34.265 billion yuan2025 China casual mobile game revenue

241.6 billion yuan2025 Tencent game revenue

PHYSIX OBSERVATION

Tencent continues to increase its bets in the casual gaming track, from platform holdings to direct investments in startups, building a global layout. This reflects the counter-trend growth of casual games, and Tencent is forming a closed loop through the WeChat mini-game ecosystem. But a broad-net strategy also carries failure risks; how to integrate resources and avoid internal friction will be key.

Source: TMTPost report