China’s Tencent moves into Europe with investment in mobile and online game publisher Miniclip (exclusive)

China’s Tencent Holdings has acquired a majority stake in Miniclip to expand its presence in Europe, GamesBeat has learned. It’s one more sign that mobile has turned gaming into a truly global business — and one worth as much as $30 billion in 2015, according to market researcher Newzoo.

Tencent, the world’s largest game company, did not disclose terms of the deal. The Neuchatel, Switzerland-based Miniclip is a mobile and online game publisher founded in 2001. It has generated more than a half a billion mobile downloads, and it has 70 million monthly active users.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.